Business Opportunities Weblog

March 17, 2008 by Dane Carlson | 8 Comments

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today about the importance of a good name for small business. Now, on the face of it, I completely disagree with this notion, as I explained in my post 20 Things Not to Do Before Starting a Business:

12. Don’t waste time picking a business name. As a sole proprietor, you already have a business name: your own!

I feel so strongly about the complete unimportance of names that even today, seven years after starting this blog (my business), it is stilled called, unimaginatively Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog. Over the years, I’ve considered renaming the site Bizop Blog or something similarly more modern, but in the end, I just prefer the unsophisticated and guileless of my own name.

But as I read more of the article, I discovered it profiled companies, like Pacific Biosciences of California Inc., that changed their name midstream:

Hugh Martin, CEO of Pacific Biosciences of California Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., says changing his company’s former name — Nanofluidics — was among his first critical decisions. It sounded like the company was involved in the study of fluids, Mr. Martin says, while it’s actually working on technology to make it easier to map a person’s DNA sequence. Moreover, he says, scientists and suppliers constantly butchered the name, calling it “Nanofoldics,” for example, and “Nanofluids.” Everywhere he went, Mr. Martin says, he had to spend two minutes “trying to get someone to learn how to spell our name.”

To find a new one, the company tapped its own talent. It invited employees to three after-work “naming parties” that cost about $200 per night. Guests ate pizza, sipped pinot noir and blurted out names. “For the first hour, you get a lot of good ideas, and then it trails off,” Mr. Martin observes.

A shrinking number of available domain names prolonged the process. Whenever a possibility emerged, an employee checked online to see whether the domain was available. At the third party, Mr. Martin mentioned the word “Pacific” and Stephen Turner, the company’s founder and chief technology officer, immediately blurted “Biosciences.” The domain for the combined names was available, so Pacific Biosciences was born.

This process of reinvention interests me. Now, I don’t promise to use any names submitted, but if you had the chance to rename this site, what would you call it? Pretend we’re eating pizza and drinking pinot noir. What would you name this site? Since I won’t have pizza and wine expenses, I’ll randomly choose one of the comments and the winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift certificate.

Good luck, and starting naming. Feel free to enter as many times as you like. I’ll pick a winner on Friday.

In Administrivia, Giveaways | 8 Comments
Tags: Advice, Branding