Hello all. I am trying to decide on a dba for my sole proprietorship but am getting frustrated as I cannot decide on a name. I do not want to use my personal name in my business name. Does anyone have any suggestions on how they figured out their business name? I also do not want to use the word "virtual" in my name. I want something like "office (or business) solutions (or services)" but I need something more. I'm not asking for help naming my business, just suggestions on what you all did to decide on your own business names. [I think of this as a huge decision, like naming a baby! It has to be perfect (for me)!]
Frustration with Deciding on a Name
- Thread starter DonnaLS
- Start date
Susankelly
New Member
I went for SEO. I thought about Business Solutions but that could be anything... a VA, printing, software. I thought on Business Services but I eventually did go with Virtual Assistant. I added Cape Cod on the end because there was only 1 or 2 other VA's on Cape Cod. In a way it's limiting but I do get a lot of calls from local business people. That's my story I'm sticking to it! 
LeeDrozak
Community Leader
Try writing down all the words that resonate with you. Put the list aside and revisit it later. Remove terms that will not work and put it aside again. Start with what you have left and find ways to match them up or combine them.
Naming my business was the toughest thing but one day it just came to me after someone said a term. Walla, there it was.
Naming my business was the toughest thing but one day it just came to me after someone said a term. Walla, there it was.
I felt exactly the same way. I've been operating for quite some time and don't have a d/b/a. I don't want to use my personal name and I don't want to use the word "virtual" since I have face-to-face clients already. I've got two possibilities picked out. One actually does use my first name but the internet is literally full of the same name in various forms or another. The other is pretty decent. It came from something a wrote a paper on when I was in grade school (never mind the grade!) about the state of NC. It has stuck with me so I may use that. The name will come. Just don't let the thought consume all your waking hours. Best of luck!
heatherheuman
New Member
I'm working on mine too.... We'll feel great when we're done with this 'task'.
We'll feel great when we're done with this 'task'.
Frances D
New Member
It took me a while to name my business and I actually never did. My sister did, I just wrote down a list of words of what I wanted my business to represent and started rattling them off to her, then we just came up with the name. so, my advice is to write down every name you come up with...it will slowly come together. Good luck! and you have to let us know what you decide on
michelle411
New Member
Frances D. My business partner and I did the same as you. We wrote down some possibilities and asked a few of our professional friends to take a look at the list. Then rank the top two names that they would be most likely to call if they knew nothing about the company but needed their types of services. After about a 95% consensus on two names, we combined them and came up with Target Management & Solutions (TMS). I know it sounds pretty close to PMS, but we decided later that it would be our attention-getter.
Well seeing as how I seem to collect domain names like there is no tomorrow (Ha Ha) and figuring out a domain name can be just as hard, if not harder, as figuring out a business name, I'd say the advice above of a brainstorming list is the best solution I've ever found. A thesaurus is definitely your friend in this case.
I think its a good idea to have your business name and domain name match. Since you don't have a business name yet, you can check sites like name.com or register.com and make certain the domain name for your business is available.
I think its a good idea to have your business name and domain name match. Since you don't have a business name yet, you can check sites like name.com or register.com and make certain the domain name for your business is available.
I also used the brainstorm method. Write down different services, different descriptions, office tools, etc and see what you can come up with. This was the biggest hurdle I had when getting started. I felt like as soon as I had my name everything else would fall into place (website, etc.). Good Luck!
I agree with Techie, what worked for me was I basically just expounded on a recurring thought/idea in my head. But I have some other business names that I have dabbled with. I would suggest not only brainstorming and a thesaurus, you can also expound on that and try translation the names you have into another language. Nothing crazy, but just to see if the name is fluid, easy to pronounce but has an edge to it that makes you stand out.