Entrepreneurship and Project Management

What’s in a name? Well when it comes to businesses, a lot. The perfect name for your business allows you to stand out (in a good way of course) and get you on the minds of your target audience. The perfect name also makes the process of developing a brand much easier, as your brand itself revolves around your company name.

Of course, this isn’t to say that a good business name will somehow compensate for your lackluster products and services. Nor will it magically increase your sales.

If you’ve yet to choose a name for your business, or plan on changing the one you already have, here is a brief guide on what you can do, as well as the factors you should consider when choosing a business name.

Be Serious

Selecting a name for your business is no laughing matter. Sure it’s fun and brings out your creativity, but don’t put it on the same level as choosing a name for your pet. Remember that most of your marketing efforts will stem forth from your company name. It’s from your name where your image, brand and reputation are based on.

Be Careful with Word Play

A clever name can either make you or break you. On one hand, it can help create better recall amongst your audience. On the other, it can come off as cheesy, or worse, tasteless.

What’s important to remember when taking this route is to choose something that’s not tacky. It’s better to be plain than have a tacky image among your customers.

Stay Away from Acronyms

Tempting as it is to use a short and easy-to-write acronym, it’s generally not a good idea, especially for small businesses that need to do heavy marketing to compensate for a forgettable company name. After all, it takes resources to explain what the acronym means right?

Keep it Safe

Don’t use, copy, or edit names of other businesses and turn it into your own. Not only can you be sued for trademark infringement, your customers will frown at your blatant disregard for intellectual property. Stay unique and use your creativity some more to come up with an original name.

Don’t Stay Local

In today’s globally competitive world wherein products and services can now be sold on the Internet, it’s no longer feasible to include your geographic location in your business name. While small businesses certainly operate locally, including your location in your name severely limits your reach and makes it more challenging to branch out.

See if it’s Taken

When you’ve finally chosen a name for your business, you first have to check if someone else already goes by that name, lest you get hit with a lawsuit. Note that you can still use a name that another business has with one condition: it has to be in another industry or market.

Don’t forget to protect your business name from infringement by registering it with your local securities office. This will cost a bit, so be sure to have the resources ready.

Ahmad Rajab is one of Ireland’s leading Business Coaches, and Mentors having hit the Irish Top 5 in the Recession! He utilises proven cutting edge Marketing Strategies to deliver MASSIVE Sales Growth, while focusing on squeezing profit margins to drive Bottom-line growth.

In 2009, Ahmad Rajab stormed the SME sector, in the Recession, with his Direct-Response Marketing and Referral Marketing Strategies; producing a high-impact solution for all his clients, with amazing results and in excess of 300% in Returns on Investment.

If you need to ensure that your small business develops right into a bigger one, then you ought to be considering how to develop your company. A business advisory can help you to improve your business, and particularly, demonstrate how you can develop a business growth strategy which supports your company to flourish.

There are many various kinds of business growth strategy with each having different benefits and drawbacks. For small enterprises where the managers have invested the majority of their very own income in to the company, it is a good idea to possess a low-risk strategy. However, these are also slow-growth plans which take several years to come to fruition. The faster but more dangerous strategy is growth through acquisition that involves buying out competitors as well as moving into different fields. A company adviser will usually encourage smaller businesses to begin slowly and just begin the greater risky strategies once their clients are completely settled.

At the start you’ll need Intensive growth plans. The first and least risky sometimes appears with market penetration. Market penetration focuses upon the client, encouraging these phones purchase a lot of product. If you have previously only sold your product or service in a small area you are able to branch out into the neighboring suburbs. Your company adviser can assist you to improve your marketing, allowing you to reach these new customers. Another plan involves using alternative channels, for example selling your products through the internet. Again, you will have to improve marketing techniques to be able to reach your new clients.

The following two strategies can be used together, when you purchase. Product Development and Selling to New clients will all help you to enhance your retail penetration. If you have a steady stream of clients, product development will help you bring in more sales. If you wish to generate new customers then developing a cool product might trigger more interest in your company. All of these lower-risk strategies involve you trying to improve marketing campaigns and pushing your product harder.

Once you have completed all the steps in the intensive growth plan, you might consider getting into Integrative growth. This is acquisition time and is a serious step. Your business adviser might be able to assist you to here by looking at the different steps you can take to grow in this manner. Firstly, you may decide to purchase a business that is employed in exactly the same field as you. Buying competitors helps you to eliminate barriers to growth and can also increase company growth through the addition of new products. Buying your suppliers will also help you to definitely grow through better product supply and fewer cost. You might buy companies which produce parts needed for your products, which in some way is a step to the side and may result in purchase of new fields.

The Women-Owmed Small company program is a new Federal program sponsored through the Small Business Administration (SBA). The purpose of the WOSB program is to level the arena for competing and winning Federal contracts. Exactly what does this mean?

Leveling the arena means that Federal agencies should award 5% of its prime contracts to women-owned smaller businesses. So, Federal agencies will identify and set aside their contracts to be bid on and earned only by WOSB. That means about $5 billion ought to be going to women business people every year. This means more jobs, new jobs, and retained jobs for that economy. The President has made jobs one of the big economic recovery pushes for the coming year.

Nearly 85 industrial categories are included in the WOSB program. These are known as the United states Industrial Classification System codes. Not every industries are on the WOSB list. The SBA researched prior Federal contracts to find out which industries had few bids from women-owned small business. Just those industries around the WOSB list are business types the SBA tagged as historically underrepresented or substantially underrepresented. Exactly what do you sell? If that which you sell is included on this code list, you can bid for your contract using the WOSB set-aside program. You can even ask the government agency to restrict an upcoming contract to become a WOSB set-aside.

So? If you are a manufacturer you’ll be able to earn contracts up to $6.5 million. If you offer services and other commodities then you can earn contracts up to $4 million. Distributors and retailers aren’t included in the WOSB program. The SBA is stressing the WOSB contracts be awarded in the fair market price. Agencies are looking for quality in addition to price.

For instance, the Dept. of Defense posted a chance asking for instant coffee for that military field-ready meals package; you know MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat). The posting stressed that the coffee quality be very good. Why? Today’s military personnel was raised drinking coffee from quality coffee shops so the expectation for meal quality is greater. The government agency was okay using the cost difference for good instant coffee.

You must certify your small business within the WOSB program. There are 2 methods to certify for the WOSB program. One of the ways is to self certify and also the second way is to become certified by a 3rd party. The SBA is selecting the program’s 3rd party certifiers. In either case you need to register as a Federal vendor and offer all required documents.

When i look for set-aside contracts around the Federal opportunities list, I found nearly 300 contracts labeled for WOSB. Which means that these contracts could be bid only by women-owned smaller businesses.

If your employees seem to be in a rut and productivity has decreased, it may be very stressful for any business owner. Perhaps you have tried talking and encouraging them or attempted to introduced incentive programs to improve production but nothing appears to be working. A business motivational speaker make be just what both you and your employees need. There are lots of benefits that include hiring a speaker to talk to the employees.

Moral Booster

If you feel the employees need a moral booster, a company motivational speaker is the best source to make use of. They’re specifically trained for this very thing because their main objective to speaking is to motivate your employees. They’re experts in this field because they get it done every single day at locations all across the country. They’ll use a mixture of humor, understanding and solutions to make your employee response inside a positive way.

Teach Start up business Ideas

The business world is evolving very rapidly in today’s economy and if a business hopes to compete they have to change with the time. Unfortunately, the employees might not be so quick to change and this can cause tension between the owners and workers. A business motivational speaker is the perfect person introducing this change to your employees. They travel around the country plus they comprehend the changes that business owners are confronted with and they can relate that require for your employees much better than you.

Reinforces Skills

A good business motivational speaker will be able to inspire employees to remember and depend on the business skills they have already learned. The speaker works to strengthen these ideas and skill back to the employees. These types of skills include organization skills, customer service skills, work ethics and productivity levels. They are able to also help the employees find effective ways to manage their stress both at the office and at home and how to properly cope with workplace conflicts.

Find the Right Speaker

When looking to locate a business motivational speaker to speak to the employees, gradually alter find one who is a specialist inside your specific industry. You certainly would not want a doctor to speak to a group of employees at a manufacturing plant. The speaker should be in a position to connect with the employees. It’s also wise to find a speaker who is prepared to design their speech around your requirements and focus on the points that you need the employees to listen to. Most speakers will customize their speech for your specific needs.

A company motivational speaker and become just what your employees need. They may need to be reminded of how important their role in the business is and the way to effective they can be. You may feel like you as the business owner or manager happen to be already speaking with them, but to listen to it from another perspective can be quite beneficial. Getting a speaker is going to be an added business expense but the results is going to be worthwhile.

I recommend visiting our online resource to read and learn more about famous motivational speakers and best women motivational speakers from all over the world.