Category Archives: media

What makes a great business name?

A top name usually has edge, which means that it intrigues or even needles. Nobody can be sleepwalked into choosing a new brand.

Facebook doesn’t scare anybody now because the title is so familiar, but as business owner it would have given me butterflies.

Google likewise. Apple in its day. Virgin going back even further.

IMPUDENT

Tesla isn’t terrifying as a business name, except for the impudence that the company is in the same league as the developer of AC electricity networks.

My own brand WordMills might be viewed as big-headed, as it chooses the auspicious company of WordPress, Word and WordPerfect.

A name I really like is Pixel. It uses synecdoche, where a small part – pixel –  stands for the whole – phone. This is a tactic that takes guts.

Then there’s the opposite strategy where a big name stands for something small. You need a bunch of courage to call your rock band America.

ONE LETTER AWAY

Other attractive business names include the charmingly modest Airbus, Great Wall Motor (now sadly reduced to GWM), and the cheeky little Poss-Off (a possum deterrent) – one letter away from you-know.

When brainstorming a name, it’s good to start on the side of audacity or gall, then tweak back if the title is keeping you awake at night.

You can’t bore people into buying.

Hey, give me back my day

Commenting on web forums can be a lot of fun, and what’s wrong with that? Nothing, except that it can divert your creativity away from more productive work.

A useful rule for me: Participate only when you have deep knowledge of a subject, so that the airing of your authority can help you and others.

Social media such as Facebook can be just as addictive and time-wasting, and this is well-documented. Still, their purpose is often personal, and we all need diversions from the serious stuff of being in business.

Professional forums undoubtedly have a social aspect too, so the delineation isn’t clear-cut.

TOP COMMENTER

Forums encourage activity by rating contributors on the number of posts, upvotes or karma points. You can become a Gold account holder, Pro level, VIP, Established Member, and so on. Who doesn’t want to be a prestigious and recognised contributor?

On one forum that I read, though don’t comment on, the top person has posted 77,000 times since he joined in 2002. He no doubt believes that he “owns” the forum, as he’s willing to slap down contributors whom he feels are not up to the mark.

I’ve happily spent a whole morning commenting on sites that have left me hot as a scramjet by lunchtime, though completely uninterested in doing any other meaningful work for the rest of the day.

EMPTINESS

The buzz is wonderful but is also addictive. It’s hard to resist doing the same thing the next day and the next.

The result? An empty sense of time and creativity wasted.

For the purposes of productivity, it’s good to set a strict rule for yourself on the conditions in which you may or may not post – in the same way that a gambler needs limits on when she or he can continue.

Otherwise you end up asking what happened to your day.

Photo by Andy T