Depending on your priorities, family, fun, health and life style can be far more important criteria to consider before setting that grand opening date. Here are a few questions to help you determine if you’re cozying up to the right business. Read the full article.
Category Archives: Starting a Business
You Want To Get Your Business Name Right
Naming a business can be thrilling and spooky. It’s exciting because naming a business always gives a feeling of getting closer to bringing your fledgling business into the world. But it can also be stressful because the wrong name can cost you.
Today’s environment is such that, even when you do everything right according to the local authorities, you can still be blindsided by a business owner from a far off jurisdiction.
When a local business owner started her housecleaning business a couple of years ago, she did her research, registered her name with the provincial corporate registry, and started building her business. A few months later she was advised by her lawyer that she should stop using her business name because someone else had the trademark pending for all of Canada.
Now, many months later, she has successfully changed her business name, but the cost has been considerable. She has redone her business cards, brochures, vehicle signage, media advertising, and rebuilt her website at naturallyneat.ca.
This situation is not unique. With that in mind, here are a few tips for naming a business.
1. Search your name ideas using any of the search engines, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Too many hits might mean the name is overused. Be sure to try using different search engines, because they don’t all pull up the same information.
2. Use the built-in search functions at domain registry websites to determine if the domains are available for your preferred business name. A couple of domain search websites are Godaddy and Hover. The search results will tell you whether your name is available in the .com, .net, .org, .biz or .info versions. If your name idea is already taken, some of the registry sites will also list a number of suggestions that are close or related to your name.
3. Keep the name as brief as possible. Throughout the life of your business, you and others will write, type, think or speak your business name many times. If you wish to inspire others to repeat your business name, make it easy for them to do so. The worst names are those that are difficult to pronounce, or they are so long that you need an acronym to shorten them. Brief is better.
4. Search copyrights and trademarks to determine if someone has already secured the name. You can either hire a trademark lawyer to do this or you can do it yourself by visiting the appropriate government agency or website. Use a search engine to search using keywords “trademark” and your location (example, “trademark Canada”) to locate the website. Visit the Canadian Intellectual Property Office website or the United States Trademark and Patent Office website.
5. Ask others for feedback on your business name. How does the name fit the business? What do others think of when they hear the name? Does the name sound right for the image you wish to portray?
6. Once you have chosen your name, register it in the jurisdiction where you intend to operate the business. For example, in British Columbia you will need to register your business with the Corporate Registry.
A great business name will help you avoid costly court disputes or name change exercises, at the same time drawing the right customers to your business. A little due diligence before settling on a business name can save you loads of trouble later. While there are no guarantees, the steps above should help you narrow your focus and choose that magic and hopefully – unique business name.
Five Tricks for Finding Hot New Business Ideas Fast
New businesses don’t happen by accident. They start and grow when passionate souls burn the midnight oil to solve problems, and then find ways to sell the solution to others.
Emerging businesses, quite deservedly, occupy a special place in the mind of onlookers. Entrepreneurs somehow manage to get ahead of the curve and create profit where previously there was none. Great enterprises begin as mere ideas.
New businesses don’t happen by accident. They start and grow when passionate souls burn the midnight oil to solve problems, and then find ways to sell the solution to others.
Emerging businesses, quite deservedly, occupy a special place in the mind of onlookers. Entrepreneurs somehow manage to get ahead of the curve and create profit where previously there was none. Great enterprises begin as mere ideas.
Here are five inexpensive and easy ways to find hot new business ideas. Remarkably, all you need is a dash of curiosity a computer with an Internet connection.
1. Pick a topic you’re passionate about. What are your hobbies? What do you love to spend you time doing? Choose a topic and go hunting for a problem that others will pay you to solve.
2. About.com Hobbies. To get a sense of the amount of interest in a topic, click on www.about.com/hobbies. Once there, you can drill deeper on the hobbies that interest you. As you visit different pages, you’ll be treated to an abundance of articles, reviews, products, links, new developments and advertisements. Pay particular heed to the pay-per-click (PPC) ads – pages with more PPC ads usually indicate a higher level of competition. More PPC ads should mean there is more money flowing in any given area.
3. eBay Keywords. Click on the buy.shop.ebay.com/ and use the alphabetical index to find the keywords visitors are using to search for what they want at eBay. From the index you can narrow your search to topics of interest. Your visit to the eBay website should give you a sense of what people are buying and selling. More importantly, it tells you the words they use to search for what they want.
4. Google Keywords. This remarkable tool allows you to see which keywords people are using to search across the entire Internet. To use it, go to adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and plug in the keywords you want to research. After an enchanting couple of minutes at this website I can tell you there are 165,000 searches per month for the term “bald head” and a mere 18,100 searches per month for “doggy doo.” Who knew? While this particular revelation may not change your life today, know that this indicates a significant level of interest in both topics. Wherever there are problems, innovators are devising solutions and combing the planet for business opportunities.
5. Google Trends. I love Google, and although the business has grown to a disturbing size, they are continually evolving a number of interesting projects. So where better to go to get a glimpse of the trends and gain insight into the hottest topics? At http://www.google.com/trends you will have access to charts indicating Internet user’s level of focus on any topic you choose, which parts of the globe the interest is generated from, as well as links to broaden your research efforts.
Although the methods above are mostly Internet based, a lot of new business ideas arise from travelling to other communities. It’s always informative to see how problems are solved, what’s selling and what’s not.
If you’re looking to offer a new product or service in your area, a few minutes a day spent at any of the sites above can provide you with a fairly inexpensive education. And after sifting through a bit of clutter, you might just discover a new way of doing things that motivates you to plan and start your next business venture.