Am trying to get a good name for my company! Help please....?

Hi Mike,

The mistake people make while naming their firms is to go for a catchy name, with no relevance to the work they do or the results they produce for customers. Customers (your most important assets) will not know what a name like "Alglaze" or "crazeglaze" mean to them. Unless you are Apple, Microsoft, Wipro, or Proctor and Gamble (with a lot of money used for building brand name), forget giving a catchy name. People will not know what it means and they will find it difficult to remember them as well.

Another suggestion was to give a personal name. People call people from yellow pages? This is rubbish, just to make yellow page selling convenient. Suppose you want to buy teak-wood furniture. Will you call a company called "Abraham's furniture" or one called "The Teak Wood Store"? Another example: Suppose you want to service your Honda bike. Will you go to the "All Bike Serviced Here" store or "The Honda Bike Service Station"? It is obvious. People look for specialization.

Let me combine the above two points. Your name should answer the question "what is in it for me?" for the customer and it should also indicate your speciality. Sometimes it is not possible to accomplish both the objectives in a small name. Then you need a tagline which will complete the task.

Now coming to your particular situation, are you a fabricator like everyone else? If so, best of luck. You will survive with the help of a bit of luck. But if you want to get ahead of others, try specializing. Offer something unique. Now, how will you get something unique which others are not capable of doing? You are no Einstein to discover an entirely new glazing process!! If this is your situation, there are three possibilities:

(1) what you offer uniquely need not be something life changing or revolutionary. A simple great customer service idea will do the trick. Find out something like that. Ask your friends. Ask your customers what they would like to get what they dont get from other fabricators. Then develop an idea.

(2) What you offer as speciality need not be unique at all!!! That's a secret, and thank me for it. You just have to proclaim it first!!! If no one else is specifying this in their ads, and it is something people appreciate (not a common thing as free delivery to customer's godown) then you claim it in your ads, I mean in your name or tagline.

(3) Ask customers what they value most about aluminium works. Is it strength, durability, shine/ glaze, weight, or delivery in time etc? Can you confidently claim to offer that most important criteria (even if others are offering it)? If so, name your company on it.

Now to give you a hands-on experience on all these, let us say you offer durable/long lasting aluminium (and you have found out that it is very imp for customers). Your name can be "Duraluminium" "Mike's Duraal: the most enduring aluminium", "Endural- enduring aluminium", "Long Last Aluminum", "Auminium Everlast", etc. You got it.

Similarly you could have other names such as "Rigid Aluminium", "Pefect Finish Aluminium", "Super Glaze Aluminium", "Designer's Aluminium", "Architect's Aluminium", "Aesthetic Aluminium", "Mike's Designer Alumina", "Luminous Alumina", "Flex Aluminium", "Non-corrosive Aluminium", "Builder's Aluminium", "Dream Home Aluminium", "Mike's Aluminium Fashions", "Auminium Trends", etc, etc, depending on what you want to convey to your customers and users of your product about your product.

I would also suggest that you create a tag line (again, it should appeal to customers, and it should proclaim your speciality) inspite of a good name. If the name conveys all that you wanted to say, the tagline can emphasize it or complement (add secondary benefits) it. Say, to convey something about your service. Think about it!!! The possibilities are limitless.

If you figure out your speciality please let me know. I will be pleased to offer some name suggestions.

1

I'm also self employed and struggled with this many times. From experience, using your own name will attract more people than using a generic business name that is unknown. A lady who works for the phone book told me people will scan the yellow pages and will call a person before they will call a business. Just a bit of advice and good luck.

Your name or Initial + Aluminium beeding Company (For local market - this is a quickly reachable & spellable Name)

Or

Your name or Initial + Aluminium Company.

Mike's Glazing Company

Try it, you'll like it!

Aluminum Glazing Co.

Amazing Glazing Inc.

Crazy for Glazing

Aluminium HOUSE,

Aluminium WORLD,

Aluminium PALAZA,

Aluminium KING,

Aluminium HUT.

Amazing glaze