As an aspiring photography entrepreneur, one of the main challenges you face is deciding a name for your start-up. It difficult and important at the same time because the business’ name is the first impression and first impressions in the business world are crucial.
In photography business, the name is a glimpse of the services offered by your start up. Ideally, your business lasts for a lifetime and picking a name is the most personal and lasting choice you make. Moreover, that’s how customers remember you, and it plays significant role in marketing.
Following are some of the points to keep in mind while picking the name:
1- The Name Should Be Flexible:
The name you choose for your business is, in most cases, permanent. But because the options in photography are vast and wide, the services provided by your company, over the years, may evolve or expand. For example, if you’re starting with wedding photography, in a few years, you may start covering personal shoots, portraits, and travel photography. Under such circumstances, your name must be flexible enough to adjust the changes and additions.
2- It Should Be Catchy:
Your company name ought to be memorable and catchy. It shouldn’t be too long and hard to remember. We live in a time where online advertisement plays a significant role in the promotion and propagation of any business. Therefore, you star-up’s name should be web-friendly too. It shouldn’t contain an undesirable number of hyphens and dashes.
3- Make Sure It Is Not Already In Use:
Your business name should be original and uncopied. This tip is of paramount importance because if the name you pick for your company is already taken, it can cause legal issues and you may not be able to register your company. In order to be sure the name you want for your company isn’t already taken, all you have to do is a quick google search.
4- It Should Convey Your Specialty:
The most crucial part of choosing the name is that the name should clearly convey what your company is all about and what it offers. Conventionally, people like to add “photography” or “studios” at the end of the name. It is not, however, a compulsion.
With the aforementioned factors in mind, following options will surely help you out in choosing a name:
Use Your Personal Name:
Most photographers choose to go with their own name when naming their business. It has many pros. For example, it is easy for people you’ve met with, to remember you and your work. Moreover, it’s versatile in the sense that it doesn’t restrict you to one kind of photography.
The one con it has is that, clients come to the studio expecting the services of that one person whose name is used. So, if they have an associate offering similar services, they might be labelled “not as good” as the owner. This hinders the growth process of the business.
Make Up a Fictitious Studio Name:
Some photographers come up with a random studio name. These names are not associated with one person, so it is relatively easier to grow the business with associates. However, your fictitious name has to be promising since you are not selling a name.
Try a Name Generator:
If you’re feeling lazy and don’t want to brainstorm, you can try and name generator on the internet. It gives you name options which are available i.e. names that aren’t already in use. It saves time and the drill.
Link to an online name generator is provided below.
https://www.businessnamegenerator.com
https://www.namemesh.com
Use Your Initials:
You can get over with the naming process by picking the initials of your name. For example if your name is Claire Anderson, you can name your business CA photography, your CA studios. This is just an example. You can get creative with your name and try something different.
Ask Friends Or Conduct A Poll:
We all have that super creative person in our lives. The easy way out would be to entrust them with this responsibility. Or if you have a couple of names in your head and you can’t decide, you can conduct a poll on Facebook or Twitter, and ask your friends for feedback.
With all of that said, you should remember that, at the end of the day it’s not the name rather the services offered by your company, and the amount of hard work you put in, that makes or breaks your business. Cheers!
