How to choose a name for your detailing business
Here's a few tips to help you choose a name for your part-time or full-time detailing business.
- Choose a name that tells your prospective customer what's in it for them
- Choose a name that's easy to spell, pronounce, remember, type and write
- Choose a name that can be registered as a Domain Name
Now lets take a look at each tip in detail...
1. Choose a name that tells your prospective customer what's in it for them.
First, you have to stop thinking about yourself and start thinking like your customer. Your customer thinks like this,
What's in it for me?
They don't care about you. (Sorry if that hurts your ego). Normal people don't walk around all day wondering how Mike Phillips is doing, I wish they did but they don't. No, instead they think about how
they're doing, they care about number one first and the rest of us later if at all. By the way, you think like this also, as in
you think about what's in it for you before you make an investment.
So when you're trying to get a new customer, you need to think like they think and before anyone pulls out their wallet to spend money they think like this,
what's in it for me?
In other words, if I give you my money, what benefit do I get in return?
People don't care how great you are they care about getting their car shiny again so don't pick a name that brags about yourself, pick a name that tells your customer in an instant, what's in it for them.
Picking a good name can bee a challenge. Let's be honest, trying to come up with a name that meets all the criteria outlined here is a challenge and it can't always be done. This tip is just to help you understand how your customer thinks.
If you can't come up with a name that tells your potential customer what's in it for them then the next best thing is to come up with a name that tells them what your business does because that will let them know if you have something they want whether it's a product or a service.
Here's an example of a business name that tells your customers what's in it for them.
iDetailYourCar.com
or
iComeToYouDetail.com Note: I'm not saying these are great names, just examples of how a name can tell your customer what you can do for them.
Here's another one that could be used for a car wash business, a detail business or even a house cleaning business.
WeCleanYouGleam.com
It even kind of ryhmes... It never hurts to have a name that rhymes or can be turned into a jingle for potential use as a radio commercial. So when thinking of a name for your business, if at all possible, try to find a way to also tell your potential customer what's in it for them.
2. Choose a name that's easy to spell, pronounce, remember, type and write.
In the above examples, each word used in the domain name is a simple, easy to spell word and also easy to pronounce word. There's an old saying in the copy-writing world that goes like this,
Don't use a $10.00 word when a $1.00 word will work
That is, don't make your audience or potential customer work at having to understand what it is you're trying to tell them. Try to choose words that are simple understand, simple to spell and simple to pronounce.
Easy to pronounce
Near to where I live in Florida is a city and a lake with the name
Okeechobee, now if you grew up around here or live around here it would be second nature to know how to pronounce Okeechobee as well as remember it, write it and even type it out, but not every customer in your geographical area will have grown up in your area and for some people trying to pronounce the name Okeechobee might be difficult if they've never heard the correct pronunciation before.
Here's the tie-in, people can remember, write and type words and names better if they can pronounce them. So try to pick a name that the average person can pronounce and you'll help make it easier for them to remember it, write it and type it and even share it!
By the way, Okeechobee is pronounced,
ō"kēchō'bē Click here to hear it pronounced Easy to write
This is similar to easy to spell and pronounce and here's an example of what I mean; you're driving down the road in your shiny car with your business name on the sides of the doors and on the back window and you get a potential customer's attention and as you're driving by them. They only have just a few seconds to try to write your business name down so they can contact you later when they're not driving.
- Mike The Detailer is fairly easy to write or scribble on a piece of paper.
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is on the difficult side to write or scribble down on a piece of paper.
Easy to type
Just like some words are easier to remember, pronounce and write, some words are easier to type than others . By this I mean some words are easier to type into a window browser in order to visit your website to get more information or so they can schedule an appointment.
Easy to remember
Sometimes you only have a few seconds to get your business name in front of a potential customer's eyes. For example, maybe you put a sign on your car? You're driving around in your shiny cool car and a potential customer sees how shiny your car is and then puts it together that you offer detailing services. Besides
seeing your name they need to
remember your name so they can contact you later.
The same could be said for a print ad, or a flyer, or a business card, or fill-in-the-blank. Focus on coming up with a name that is easy to remember. This is where a graphic or logo can help too, for example,
Mike the Detailer
Visit our website for more information!
www.MikeTheDetailer.com
One comment...
Note in the fictional ad above, the sentence above the domain name that reads,
Visit our website for more information!
In the copy-writing or advertising world this is referred to as a "Call to action". That is, your potential customer has read your copy and the next step is they need to take action, so you help them by telling them what to do. You could also do this,
Call us! 1-800 XXX XXXX
Don't leave the little things up to chance. Help yourself by helping your customer to help themselves.
Short Simple Words
Choose shorter, simple words instead of longer, complex words. This goes without saying and applies to all of the above tips on picking a business name.
3. Choose a name that can be registered as a Domain Name
Once you come of with words that create your business name, before spending any money on business cards or filing a DBA form, (Doing Business As), before you take any action on your wonderful new business name, check to see if you can register it as a dot.com domain name.
For example when I wrote this article I checked to see if Mike the Detailer could also be registered as
www.mikethedetailer.com and it was available so I registered it for the purposes of this article.
Now follow me on this, even if right now you don't think you want or need a website for your part time or full-time business, you never know what the future holds and at the price of securing a dedicated domain name to identify and brand your business on the Internet, it's worth looking into and taking this extra step. There are low cost Domain Name Registers and for example, I registered MikeTheDetailer.com for $10.00 at a popular Domain Name Register. So even if you don't think you want or need a domain name, it's a low cost insurance plan just in case you change your mind.
The last thing you want to do is to start a business only to have it become successful and only AFTER it becomes successful you find out that the incredibly wonderful and great idea for a business name is already taken by someone else.
So use one of the popular Domain Name Register's to check and see if your idea for a domain is available.
These are just some friendly tips for your consideration...
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