Getting Started | Naming Your Business: Ep. 070

Picking a name can be either the easiest or most challenging part of starting your business. Today John and Kacie discuss the mission and vision of The Business Project. Tune in for tips and strategies on the best way to choose a name for your business; as well as some great resources for making sure your name is not being used by anyone else.

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-Kacie Bryant and John Crespo

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Transcript

What's up?  Domain names. Name tags,  social media handles, trademarks,
 oh my, oh my, good job John. 

Hey, you got to have fun in the beginning.  It shows that we're not avatars. We're not cyborgs. We are human. Very, very human over here. Ain't no AI going on right here. Nope. We are so thankful to have you guys here today.

We are talking about naming your business. So we're going to take the next, what, like 15 weeks?  And we're going to go over step by step. So this is what the business project is about. Yeah. And that's why we started it is because a lot of people are wanting to start a business, or even you could be like three years into your business and you're like, you know what?

I need to refresh. And so that's what we're doing. We're going to take the next 15 weeks and we're going to go over step by step by step by step of starting a business. For sure. And this one is the beginning part. Yeah. Like the whole beginning, whole beginning, we're talking about, Oh man, I got this great business  that I can, I feel I can make money off of what am I going to call it though?

Yeah. Like, because I think naming the business is huge. It is. You got to get a name that it will call attention to what you want to do. A name that will resonate with the community. You know, that's like a true branding.  Branding 101. It's the first thing for me. I can't get past the next step without naming my business.

No, you can't. And you know what? When I have conversations with people, one of the first things I tell them is people who are, who want to get their business registered. One of the first things I say is what are you going to call your business? Have you thought about that? And the majority of them are like, I don't know. 

Like a deer in head, like, I got to name this business.  Yeah. You got to name your business. Us creatives. That's the analytical people. The analytical people are like, I just, I have this idea. I know that it can make money as creatives are like, I have this idea. Now we got to find out.  And we got to get a logo and do our branding and pick out the colors and do all of that stuff.

But you analytical people are like, just let me do the work  for real, for real. You know, uh, a funny story is, you know, how we're, I'm opening that other location. Right. And, um, You know, that's going to be huge. So that's going to be the whole co working content creation, pack and ship model. And one of the first things I did was I'm utilizing today's technology.

So I'm going into AI, I'm going to like chat GPT and I type in chat GPT. Hey, I'm starting this business. It's going to work in this industry. It's going to incorporate all this stuff. Can you give me some names that will kind of like bring that bridge, that gap and bring it together and make it. Resonate with what I'm doing.

And it's like,  Sure. I can do that for you.  Like a matter of seconds, it spits out like 20 different names. Oh yeah. I love that. I love that today. I think there's one positive that I can take out of AI is doing, being able to do things like that.  You can have it ask you questions too. So like you can go there and be like, I'm wanting to start a new business.

Ask me questions to get me to help me find the name, but you know what I was searching. So we created a course. If you guys don't know. We have the business project podcast or the business project. com was actually started because John and I both have a bunch of people all the time that are like, I'm starting a business.

How do I pick a name or how do I register my domain or how do I build a website or, you know, all of these things. And no matter what type of business you have, whether it's. landscaping or accounting or social media, you know, influencer, a lot of the basics are the same. And so we're like, why don't we just take all of the basics and put it in a course to where people can step by step learn how to start their business.

So that is why the business project started. Well, when we created this course about three years ago, the tools man in the past three years have come so far. So incredibly far. And I was researching to kind of refresh for this series that we're about to start back. I mean, 20, 30, 40 different websites that use AI and they can just like basically create your name for you.

It is the coolest thing in the world. It is. Yeah. So how did though,  in the creation of the business project,  what was your process in figuring out the name? There was no AI really at that time. No. I, I knew right away. I knew right away that that's what I want to, again, I'm a creative. Like, so that name just popped up in your head.

Wow. That's  that's an outlier for us. Regular people. It doesn't happen that way.  Yeah. I've named lots of businesses and I think this one, because you know where I got it from, I'm going to be, I'm going to tell the truth. Let's go. I really love the Bible project. I love the Bible project. It's a series on YouTube and they go.

They explain books of the Bible and like cartoon drawings. And I love that. And so I think when I was talking about the business, you know, getting that going, I'm like, I want to do the same thing, but for business. Yeah. And I just, I love that. It is, that's what we're doing is we're helping people take their business project and make it a reality.

Like step by step. Yeah.  I like that. Am I allowed to copy like that? Yeah. I'm getting in trouble for that. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing new under the sun. Yeah. Right? And I think that, that comes from the Bible too. There's nothing new under the sun, right? So when you're creating something, you have to, you should be ready, willing, and able to look at what's out there and kind of like, all right, what can I take from here?

What can I take from there? But make it my own, right? But when you're in that process of figuring out what you're going to call it, figuring out what the business is going to look like, you're going to research. Research what's out there,  look at what's working, look at what's not, and look what resonates with you and combine it all together.

Yeah, you have to add, whether, even if you're using AI, it's so much better when you put a piece of you in it. Don't just pull it and run with it. Put a piece of you in it, cause you know your passion, you know why you're doing what you do, and make sure that you don't, um, that you don't, Let AI take that out of you.

Don't be lazy. Yeah, because people will be able to see through that. Yeah, I think a lot of times when it comes to that whole AI thing,  It starts like sounding the same, you know, you become robotic, you know, a lot of the messaging out there sounds and starts looking robotic. So you got to personalize it and make it your own because people will start seeing through that.

Yeah. So we gathered, we created a list and we're at the business project dot com, www dot the business. The business project. com there's a link in the, um, and if you're looking on YouTube or Facebook or buzzsprout, if you're watching on any of the places where we get the podcast, after we're live recording, there's a link in there and that link will bring you to, uh, we just created.

A free list on there. Ooh. Of a bunch of easy, um, like AI tools, online tools that can help you Yeah. With naming your business. And I, I kind of went through, did a good amount of research yesterday and I found some good ones. I updated the list that we did a couple years ago and it's just free and it has the name of the.

Program and a little description about it and then a link straight to it. And it's just a quick list you can go through. So if you are looking at naming your business or even if you have a name and you're like, you know, I want to refresh this a little bit, I've been running a business for 20 years and it's time that we add a little refresh to it.

Uh, you know, it doesn't hurt to go through that tool and see what they come up with. So head on over to there and get that free list. Yeah. And I think every now and then you should look at your business if you're already in business and figure out ways to, you know, refresh it. Right. Um, you should, you should want to keep up with the times, keep up with what resonating with the community, keep up with your clients or customers are asking for and all of that.

And maybe that will entail, you know, providing another kind of like brand name to your business and what you do. So those tools are excellent for that. And I love the fact that we can go to the business project dot com as our one stop shop for all of that. You know, it just makes life for anyone starting a business or in a business so much easier to have one place to go to.

Because I know how fragmented information is today. And they're all trying to sell you something. They're like, here, watch this good information. And then they try to sell you something and the business project is not trying to sell you something literally. It's like, here's a free membership. Here's an unlimited membership and that's it.

There's no upsells. There's no, you know, gimmicks or anything like that. So you can dive as deep as you, as you. Want to in there you can go as far as you want to and get as much information as you want to Um you control it 100  All right. Should we hear from miss lorna? Let's go the bbb And then we're gonna get to some of your comments and then we're gonna go to so we'll hear from lorna We'll get to some of your comments and then we will Go into like some of the specifics of naming your business.

So yeah, you got the name. How do you make sure that it's not registered? The domain names, like all of that stuff. So stay tuned because we will be right back for all of that stuff. 

Hi everyone. My name is Lauren Peters, director of marketing and communications at the better business Bureau serving middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. John Crespo, this tip is for you and your clients. I know you work with many businesses during this time of year as they prepare or you prepare their taxes.

So I just want to provide a few tips. First things first, this time of year scammers will call you saying that you owe past taxes.  If they say you owe past taxes, hang up the phone and contact the IRS directly. Go to the IRS website and make sure you use the phone number on their website to contact them.

Second thing to be aware of is pop up shops. There's so many tax preparers that are popping up this time of year. They're not vetted. Please do not use them. Stick to ones you know. Stick to ones who've been in the community for a long time. And ask your friends for referrals. Have they worked with a tax preparer in the past that they trust?

So those are tips for the week. Remember, Better Business Bureau is here to help you in any way we can. Always feel free to send us an email by sending it to info at gobb. org. John Crespo, we're rooting for you this time of year, and we know you're taking care of our small businesses. Everyone have a great day. 

We're back. We're back already. We're back already. Lauren is the best. Lauren, thank you for thinking about me during this time. I feel like I'm in a cave sometimes and, uh, you know, I forget what the sun looks like or what the world looks like because tax season is just crazy this year. Like, it's the busiest year I've had so far when it comes to tax season.

And with all the tools out there, I figured it wouldn't be getting so busy, but it's like, it's getting worse. You haven't even gotten to our stuff yet. I haven't. Just wait. I haven't gotten to the, like, the, I haven't gotten to the juice of the stuff yet. Like, I'm just getting to the outskirts and it's crazy.

He walked in the door this morning and he just shut the door and goes,  Huh. I look forward to this day cause this is my, You know, like my getaway and put my mind on something else. Yeah. All right. So we're talking about naming, naming your business. Uh, we have a couple of comments here. We're going to get to you.

What's up, Justine? What's up, Faith? What's up, Morgan? I'm supposed to be helping you. I've been waiting for your booty to reach out to me so I can help you. Um, she said you haven't gotten hers either.  No, I know. I got a lot that I have, I'm waiting for you guys, but don't worry, we're good. If you're in Tennessee, middle Tennessee, we got some time.

Yeah. Okay. We're extended to June because of the tornado. Yeah. Yeah. So don't don't don't fret. All right, what you got on on facebook? Uh, whatever. This is youtube. Thank you We got mr. Game gear. What's up game gear, man? We appreciate you. Uh checking in every week, man Yeah, um, he's he's asking what is the keyboard for?

Oh, I switched it out. The keyboard is my switcher so like when you guys see the Laurenth come on or Christina is going to come on in a minute or ending it. That's I use the keyboard to do that. It's like the remote control.  There you go. Uh, clay, bite ceramics. That's my auntie bones. What's going on? She says, good morning, Tennessee. 

She's from California.  She doesn't say it like that. Cause she's from California. How do they, what's the accent in California? She says, um, like, hello,  like hello, Tennessee. She doesn't say that  going to catch some waves.  Like totally. 

That's so funny. Anyway, we're just having too much fun today. I know. Okay. So back to the topic of naming your business. So let's get into some of the details of naming your business. And if you guys are just joining us, uh, it's a good idea after this is over to go back and listen to it. Cause we talked about some good stuff, but we're going to get into, um, the, like the basics of what you need to know.

Cause I think it's like, okay, great. I came up with a name, um, we'll say the business project. So now what, now, what do I do? What do I do with that name? How do I know if it's, if I'm going to get in trouble for using the name domain names, I think are a big, like,  weird ghost thing that nobody really understands. 

And, and so,  um, there are tools to help you with this also, but there are some basic things that you should do once you pick your name. Number one, you need to figure out, make sure that it's not trademarked in your area and you can do that. The U S. USTPO. US Trademark Protection Office or something like that?

Yes. USTPO. USTPO. And that's a link on our website on the business project too if you're going through this. Um, and that you can go there and check your trademark. You can ask a trademark attorney. But this is I think an essential step that a lot of businesses leave out. And that can come back to bite you.

So bad. Yeah. Yes. Because. That can get ugly. You, hopefully, if you're doing it right, you're going to invest thousands of hours and thousands of, um, dollars into creating a professionally done logo and branding and all of those things. And if you're using a name that you're not allowed to use, then you're going to have to start all over.

And you think about signs and business cards and, um, I mean, they could sue you for that, too. So you really, really, this is a very, very important step that you don't want to miss out. And we're not lawyers. And so we can't give you, you know, full advice. If you ask us in the comments of like, Hey, is this name good?

Um, so we would recommend, you know, at least advising with a lawyer. Once you get your name picked out, make sure that you're good to go. For sure. For sure. Another. Uh, Using after you're using the trademark first, you want to make sure it's not trademarked or anything like that, right? Then you also want to make sure it's available in where you live  because um Even though it may not be trademarked It could still be you still probably wouldn't be able to register that name in the state that you're in Because somebody has it so you just go to the is that we might have to add that is that on the On the tools and resources.

I don't think it is. We'll add it We will go to your state secretary of state site And search for that name see if there's an organization that already has it in your state because if so Obviously you won't be able to register it with the state So you're going to have to make sure that along with the there's no trademark on it It's available in the state that you live in.

Yeah and  Should we get into domain names because that's a whole nother part of it flows into that. Yeah So domain names once you've checked and make sure that it's not trademarked and you can use it and then you and and by the way Trademarks can get pretty complex because that also matters about location.

It matters about business type So like say for example there's a Target and that it does clothing and like, you know, the traditional target that we think of that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't use Um, when you register a trademark, you register it for a particular business, um, business type.

And so, um, that's another thing to consider when you're doing it, right? Yeah. Consider the industry. That's, that's huge. Industry. That's the word I was looking for. I love it. Okay. So that's why we're together. When you are registering a domain name and we have, um, name, uh, Checker. Name check. Checker. Is a really good tool.

Again, that's on the business project. Um, this is, I've been using this for years and it's just gotten bigger, better and better and it's, And  I even forgot until we were refreshing for this course, I forgot about that as a tool and I'm going to use it because we're expanding local into other cities. And I wanted to know about domain or the names available on social media.

So what name check, it's either name check or name checker. What that does is it, you can put in your handle. So like at the business project and. Or just the business project. And it'll show you if the domain's available.  com. net. org, like all of those things, but then it'll also show you what social media handles are available.

So it checks, I don't know, like 20 different, you know, Tumblr and Facebook and Instagram and YouTube, and it'll tell you if it's available or not. And it's such a cool, neat way because you want to be consistent. And so. If you are able to, you know, search that and then see that the main things that you want to use are available, then you know that it's good.

Ooh. I didn't even know that existed. Mm hmm. That is awesome. It does name checker name check name checker You'll have the we'll have it for you, but that is seriously a good tool. It is a good one Yep It saves a lot of time because then you don't have to go into instagram separately and then facebook separately and then you know search for things and so, um, typically I mean we're pretty far into this whole internet game by now as far as um, just a culture Understanding and knowing and domain name availability, you know, cause there's been a bazillion ideas now and  And so a lot of times you're gonna have to get creative with it, so  You really want ideally you would have your Domain name would be what your business is.

I think that that's the most desirable thing. People will look at your, you know, they'll search in the business project and it's like, oh, that's obvious that that's the business project. So ideally you want to do that, but a lot of times you can't. And so getting creative and making sure that it's consistent.

So like. With the business project for a lot of ours, we have to use the business proj PR OJ, and we saw that that was available on a lot of different things. So that's what we use instead. And you can do, you know, if I've seen creative things, like if you're a nutrition shop, you know, eat well, or eat good food or whatever, as the domain name and being consistent with your website and your social media handles as consistent as you can.

Yeah. Cause I, then that's where name checker is like a game changer, name checkers, a game changer because so check this out. You get your name, right? You figure out the name is no trademark issues. No state issues. Doesn't mean there isn't any social media issues or domain issues because one thing that I and you tell me, right?

Your social media handle should also be kind of catchy, right? And what's, what's terrible and that's happened to me before is when you're putting in, you're creating your social media pages, it'll say the name is not available. And then you, you have to add like all these numbers or stuff to it if you're stuck with using that name.

So I think utilizing that resource will help give you a clean social media handle, right? Because I think clean social media handles say something.  and, you know, all that other stuff. I just felt like I had to  go in there. Yeah, no, I think social media social media handles are so important and and as most consistent as you can get because you want them to be able to easily.

It's already hard enough to get people to find a notice and recognize your business. But You, if they are looking for you, you want to make it as easy as possible. You want to take out as many hurdles as you can. Yeah. And having a nice clean social media handle that goes along with your website and having it all consistent.

Yeah. Makes it easy. Instead of, hey, what's your social media handle? Uh, CFDServicesInc9821456666. Yeah. It doesn't sound good, does it? But that's only on Instagram. On Facebook, It just doesn't sound good. Yeah. Find a way to make it clean. Mm hmm. Yep. 100%. And you might have to get creative with this, and that's okay.

Should we hear from Christina? Let's go. Let's go, Miss Christina. And then we're going to get to some of your comments.  I forgot what button to push. This is what my keyboard's for.  Hello, entrepreneurs and business owners. I'm Christina Stubblefield, a digital marketing strategist and co owner of Sew In Media Group.

In today's quick tip, we're talking about something crucial, yet often overlooked. The power of owning your email and text list. With the recent outages on Facebook and Instagram, many businesses found themselves in the dark, unable to reach their audience. Thanks. But guess what? Those with a solid email or text list.

Face no such issue. Why? Because they own their list. No algorithm changes, no platform outages can take that away. It's a direct line to your audience and you're in control, ensuring your message always gets through. Building your email and text means investing in the long term relationships with customers.

It's about creating a community that moves with you, no matter where you go online. Don't let your business's voice to be silenced by factors out of your control. Start building your list today and take the first step towards true digital independence. If you would like more tips from me, visit my website, Christina stubblefield.

com and join my email list. 

What's up? We're talking about where we're from on the little break. If you guys tell us where you're from in the comments, we would love to hear that. Yeah, that's cool. I like, uh, knowing where people are from because we can crack jokes then. Yeah.  And by the way, Christina is absolutely amazing as always.

Text club. You know what? It's good that she brought that up with all that stuff that happened this past couple weeks. First, we had the phone outage, right? Where they  All the phone lines were down for like a whole day or something like that. And then we had the whole Facebook, um, shut down. So you gotta have those tools in place, God forbid.

This stuff just goes down. How are you still going to communicate with your people? We've done several podcasts on the importance of a text club. I mean, I push all of our, all the businesses that we work with. I'm like, you have got to have a text club and as your backup plan, it might not be making you a millionaire right now, but it is your backup plan.

So if you guys are a business owner and you don't have a text club, get into it. Need it. You need it. That's a way to keep your stuff off. Just relying wholly on social media, keep your stuff off and still stay in in communication with your clients because.  Listen, if everything goes down,  you still have to find a way to keep moving, right?

Regardless of what's happening in the world, how are you going to keep moving? And you got to put the tools like that in place for that. And the ones that can keep moving are the ones that are going to win.  I want to be a winner. I want to be a winner, too. I want to be a winner.  So, we'll figure it out with me.

We'll figure out a way to win. Okay. All I want to do is win, win, win. Oh, gosh, you're so funny. No matter what. I saw a comment pop up on our YouTube. Oh, yeah. John is not very good at reading the comments. Usually, I do all of them.  So, um,  She had to let us know she's from Southern, California Southern California.

That's where the weather is pretty right? Yeah, that is nice  Brea, I know Brea is where she lived for a long time. I don't know where she is now Yeah, awesome Southern Cali in the building and then we have a game gear saying he's waking up with his coffee in the business Project. Yeah, you gotta have that coffee in the morning.

I can't function without my coffee. I got mine still from this morning This is like my fifth cup And he also asks, what is the best place to get your content out there? Like to get your content out there the best place to get your content. Are you asking like where to get content from? or Where do you put your content probably where you put your content?

How do you get it out there out to the universe? Um social media social media. It depends on what kind of content you have Yeah, there's lots of strategies for getting your content out there, right? Some people solely rely on youtube Yeah, some people solely rely on facebook or instagram or tiktok. It really depends on who your audience is So, first step is know your audience, and that's going to be one of our talks coming up anyway.

It is. Yeah. And you find it on TheBusinessProject. com.  Yes, and I think getting, don't feeling like you have to do it everywhere. Yeah. Picking one place and getting really good at that one thing. That's right. Mm hmm. And then you can add on. Other things after that depending on how the the shift goes Most people that are killing it with social media are killing it with one platform Yeah, and they create specifically for that platform and they put it on other platforms too, which grow an audience But that one platform is where they thrive.

That's their focus  You don't don't do it all the all the places. Yeah, hopefully that helped. Yeah  Um, okay. So next week  We are talking about You  I don't remember.  Justine, help us to, um, what's the next step in the process? The next step after you pick your name is opportunity. I think figuring out your, um, your competitors doing research competitor and out.

Yep. And you like that? How quick I am with that. Um, so that would be probably next week is what we're going to talk about. We are market analysis. I think that's, uh,  Yeah, that's key. Yep. Because once you get your name, then you have to figure out how you're going to snuggle yourself into the market. Yep.

We're basically going to start building a business plan here. Mm hmm. Yep. After these 15 weeks, you will have your business plan done.  Mmm. Yeah. You better, you better log in every week because this is going to be so important. Gems. Good stuff. Good. And if you're like me and you're like, super excited, I know when I first started start businesses, I'm like, Oh, I want it all done yesterday.

Then we have a cheat sheet for you. Yeah. I like cheat sheets. Cheat sheet. It's like those, um, you know, those little, uh, books that you, that you, they used to sell. That gave you the summary of the book. What is that called? Um, Oh, the cliff notes. Cliff notes. Yes. It's like cliff notes. Yeah. Yes. This cheat sheet.

I know it sounds overwhelming and we actually changed the name to simple steps to launch your business because 28 steps sounds like it's a lot. Yeah. Yes. So don't get overwhelmed by the 28 steps. I think technically now there's 29, um, simple steps to launch your business. So there's a whole video that summarizes all of the steps and then you get a cool little checklist so that checklist you can print out.

And then as we go through all of these episodes, you can just check it off and it also gives you homework and it gives you a business plan template and all of these things as we work through these. And again, huh? Slick. Slick.  Even, even if you're an existing business, I think that this is still, if you never wrote a business plan or if you haven't addressed it in a while, I mean, your business plan is a living, breathing document that should be continued.

You should continue to edit it. You should continue to look at it. Um, I mean, we just, as a company, one of my companies, we just completely redid our vision and mission and we've been in business for six years. And so don't put it in stone. Don't write it in the brick and then throw it away. Throw it in the front yard.

Love it. Love it. So there you go. You got your marching orders. You got your  action. This is a, this is real. So  tune in next week, go to the business project. com and we'll see you later. Yeah. You'll have a good rest of your week. Peace out.