Use Your Own Business Consulting Skills to Choose a Legal Name 

You can use a business consulting firm to help you decide on a name for your business, but you can also accomplish this yourself.  No doubt you'll spend hours brainstorming for a business name that represents your products or services, a name that's both marketable and infused with personality. To help the creative process along, you might surf the Web, browse the dictionary, read trade magazines, check articles written by business consulting firms and bounce ideas off of friends and colleagues. But as you hunt for the perfect name, keep these questions in mind:
 
Will your business name receive trademark protection?  A business consulting agency will tell you that allowing businesses to have exclusive use of their name helps consumers identify and recognize goods in the marketplace. For instance, when you buy Smith’s brand of wood glue, you'll know that it will be similar in quality to the Smith’s glue you bought last time. By contrast, if any company were allowed to call their glue "Smith’s Glue," you would never know what you were getting. By allowing just one company to use a name like Smith’s, trademark law helps that company to build customer trust and goodwill. Your legal business name will not affect your business credit.
 
Is your proposed business name available?  Before you invest too much time and money in a formal name search, take a few minutes to contact the Secretary of State in your state and verify that the name(s) you have chosen are available. This is one more way you can use your own business consulting skills to your advantage.
 
If your business will have a website, is a similar domain name available?  Business consulting firms are aware that the best domain names are often the simple ones, short, memorable, clever, easy to spell and pronounce. Nevertheless, you must weigh the sometimes competing concerns of a Web-friendly name with the importance of obtaining trademark protection for the name you choose. Have confidence in your own business consulting abilities when it comes to making this decision. Please contact us for more information and any other assistance in planning your business.