A killer company name isn’t just about finding something that sounds right. Here are six things to keep in mind.

What you call a new venture can very well turn out to be one of the most important decisions you will make in the early days of a company. The business name will dictate which Web domain you can register, your trademark, and how people identify what you do.

So while the R.E.M. approach might work on the rare occasion–the band reportedly opened a dictionary and picked the name at random–you’re better off giving the name due diligence. Here are six things to keep in mind.

1. Watch out for sound-alikes.

Tarek Pertew, the co-founder of Wakefield (which provides info about great places to work), says to avoid a name that has too many alternate spellings. For example, you might want to call your new start-up Phaser, but he says too many people will think it is Fazer or Faser. They will type that domain into a browser and find the wrong brand.

2. Wait for the lightbulb moment.

To create BloomThink, the name of his social media firm, Billy Cripe grabbed blank sheets of paper and had family members write down interesting words. Eventually, his daughter put “bloom” and “think” together. Everyone at the table new it was the right name. “Start-ups should take some time saying the words out loud because they’re going to be saying it a lot: on the phone, in face-to-face meetings, in presentations. You want your words to easily translate to the keyboard for accuracy and ease,” he says.

3. Let your name tell a story.

Pertew says it is not always necessary for your company name to tell a story. Yet, it can help with branding and generate buzz. One example: the eyewear company Warby Parker is named after two characters from a long-lost Jack Kerouac journal. Pertew’s company name is also a conversation starter: Wakefield is named after a character in a Tom Swift novel series from the 1900s that was inventive and prescient.

4. Make it personal.

Your company name is often an extension of your personality. Caroline Fielding was doodling on a sheet of paper one night, trying to think of a company name. She thought about three grandsons in the family: Dean, Bryan, and Steven. And, she thought about how her company, which makes an iPhone app called Bus Rage, is driven to succeed. She combined the three names to create Dryven. “The name is easier to remember [for customers] when there is a personal story behind it,” she says.

5. Don’t be too practical.

Some companies use a name that says exactly what is does, like Accounting101. That might be a mistake, says Aaron Frazin, the CEO of Charlie, an app that pulls info about your contacts before a meeting. Frazin played around with names like Socialize.it and Unclutter.it but ended up picking the name Charlie because it’s a bit esoteric. “No one wants just a tool that says what it does; they want a name that represents something bigger than it does,” he says.

6. Make sure you love it.

The process of picking a name can easily turn into a a huge headache. Chris Zepf, the CEO of Kingdom Ridge Capital, says he and a business partner spent hundreds of hours thinking of a name. They went through a laundry list of Greek gods, mountain ranges, and geographic locations but came up empty. He decided to pick a known quantity: the street he lives on, Kingdom Ridge. He now says the name resonates with him every time he hears it.

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Does your little home office make you feel like a small fish? Here’s what the big fish think of you.

你的小小家庭办公室，是否让你感觉像一条小鱼？这就是为你着想的大鱼。

Stress comes from all angles for the entrepreneur.
企业家从四面八方感受到重力

One would think that working from the comfort of home would decrease stress. That’s not necessarily so.
当一个人在家工作的时候可以减轻这些压力。这也不是必要的。

While many small-business owners value the freedom and lower cost of a home-based office, they also worry about being “found out”–so much so that it keeps them from marketing to the corporate sector, where there are billions of dollars just waiting to be allocated to outsourcing.
当非常多的小型企业家为自己标榜在家办公的各种价值，例如只要有和低成本。但他们同时也担心“被发现”的问题————保持他们处于市场合作的扇区中，百万的金钱只等着分配给外部资源。

“It’s just not professional enough, and they wouldn’t take me seriously if they knew,” one of my clients told me.

She isn’t alone in her concern that big clients seem to want to work with other big fish. Does working from home necessarily mean that you can’t compete?

Consider this: Econohomes grossed more than $50 million in revenue last year, and was named the second-fastest growing company in Austin, Texas. That growth was in no small part due to the extent to which Econohomes works with home-based business-owners.

“Ninety percent of our business relies on database that is designed and maintained by an entrepreneur who works out of his basement in San Francisco,” says Amy Hasbrouck, Econohomes’s vice president of marketing & development. “And all of his team members work from home as well.”

That’s quite a large responsibility to be outsourced, but Hasbrouck sees distinct benefits in working with home-based contractors.

“I feel like there’s a lot more flexibility with independent contractors,” Hasbrouck says. “They can plug in and pivot quickly because they are not a part of something that is overly structured and complicated.”

Working from home also allows for a more flexible work schedule. But does the fact that you work in the wee-hours, after the kids are in bed influence a hiring manager’s choice? You may be tempted to bend the truth to keep your secret safe, but that may backfire on you.

“What is most important to us is that the contractors are up front about how and when they work,” says human resources manager August Nielsen. “Recently we were implementing a new HR software and our project manager worked from home. We received emails at really odd times, but we knew his work schedule going in so it didn’t surprise or concern us.”

Nielsen is responsible for hiring more than 1,000 employees for Veterans United Home Loans, a company named the No. 1 financial-services job creator right here at Inc. “Our company has 1,200 employees in 25 offices in 22 states, operating in all time zones,” says Neilsen. “We have to be just as flexible with vendors and contractors to make sure we are working with the best.”

Still, there is the inevitable occasional reminder of a contractor’s home-office status.

Do the sounds of home create an unprofessional impression for your clients? What if the dog barks or your three-year-old barges into the room during a client call? You may be mortified–but perhaps your concern is unfounded.

“A prospective vendor just did a demo with us from his home-based office,” says Nielsen. “During the demo we heard the laundry buzzer go off. Frankly, it was endearing and we have a pretty casual work environment so not a big deal.”

But Nielsen warns that some companies might have been turned off by the brief disruption. “Bottom line, working from home isn’t going to work for every contractor and the buzzer in the background isn’t always appropriate,” he says. “But if you know your audience, set expectations, and deliver results it can work.”

Hasbrouck is also very forgiving of a little noise in the background. “Are you kidding?” she chides. “I have a room full of sales people who toss around a football right outside my door. A little noise makes me feel right at home.”

Do you fret about being “found out” by your larger clients and prospects? Remember this: the fact that you work from home does not necessarily make you appear unprofessional. But the fact that you believe it does certainly could keep you from swimming with the big fish.

Want to become a better, smarter, more effective team builder and communicator? Join us at Inc.’s upcoming Leadership Forum June 10 to June 12 in San Diego. Visit leadership.inc.com for details.

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