Think it's hard picking the name of your next precious child?

Try a business.

One of the early challenges you'll face as a business owner is selecting the name for your company or practice that has just the right cadence and evokes the correct visual imagery. It also feels enormously personal.

My first venture into naming my earlier company yielded Oya Consulting - Oya being an African goddess of change and transformation. Fun to me to grab as an identity, since I was an African woman with big aspirations, but it took a lot of explaining!

So how should you go about naming your company or business? Should it be:

• Your own name? Such as "Sam Smith MD" or "drjoe.com".
  
• Something that describes what you do (a process name)? Such as "El Primo Window Washers" or "sallydogwalker.com".
  
• Something that describes what the client will get if they buy from you (a benefits name)? Such as "Peak Health Medical" or "agelessboomerbeauty.com".
  
• Something that describes your ideal client? Such as "The Entrepreneurial MD" or "kidswithADHD.com"?
  
• Something that is wacky or unrelated? Such as "Yahoo" or apple.com

Here are two sites that offer an array of tools to get your creative naming juices going:

1. Business Name and Tagline Generator
   
2. What's my name?

Have fun!

PS: Please excuse my absence next week - I'll be away on vacation. And back the following week, refreshed and brimming with ideas