One of the things that many people who want to start a scrapbooking business struggle with is coming up with scrapbooking business names. While it would seem like choosing a name for your business would seem trivial, it is actually quite important to do. The name you choose for your business is what helps you brand and market yourself, as well as helps people remember and identify yourself. It’s the name you’ll be using on your website, your business cards, and everything else related to the activities in your business.
What Makes a Good Business Name?
While there really is no wrong name for your business, some names are better choices than others. Here are a few of the traits of good business names:
1. Easy to Spell and Pronounce: If people cannot spell or pronounce your business name, this makes it more difficult for them to tell other people about you and refer new customers to you. Choose words that are not commonly misspelled and are not too hard to say aloud.
2. Not too Generic: If your scrapbooking business name is too generic, people will have a hard time remembering what it is. For example, there is a digital scrapbooking store I like to shop at, but I always forget what it is called because the name is very generic and I get the order of the words confused as well as always confuse it with other stores with similiar names.
3. Not Easily Mixed Up With Similar Words: Some words have various tenses and variations. For example, scrapbook and scrap or designs and designer. Be sure you think carefully about this also, for if someone types “yournamescraps.com” when your site is actually “yournamescrapbooking.com” they may not find your website or business.
4. Make Sure the Domain Name is Available: Speaking of domain names, it’s absolutely essential your business has a website. So, you’ll want to make sure that the name you want is available as a domain name. If your name is “Lucy Custom Scrapbooks” and someone else owns the domain LucyCustomScrapbooks.com it’s going to be tough for others to not get you confused.
Other Factors to Considering When Choosing a Scrapbook Business Name
State Requirements: Most states will require that you register your business name as a ficticious or “doing business as” name. This is usually relatively easy and painless to do, just visit your state’s small business administrations website. This will help ensure no one else is using the same business name as you and the cost is usually nominal.
Your Brand: A name is more than just what people call you – it is your brand. Along with a brand you will need a logo, so you may want to take that into consideration also. Some brands make for easy logos, others are a little more challenging to come up with. “Purple Daisy Scrapbooks” would be easy to brand with a logo of a purple daisy for example.
Your Personality: Many names invoke a different type of mood and personality. Think about what mood you would want a name for a scrapbook business to reflect. You may want to shy away from words that sound too serious and corporate and instead stick to something creative or unique. PickleBerryPop for example is the name of a very popular digital scrapbooking website and business. If they had stuck to something corporate, bland, or serious, chances are they would have had to work much harder to get the recognition they have now.
Be Careful of Spelling Differences: This is something that especially applies to anyone who was thinking about using the word “scraps” or “scrap” in their name. Why? Because if you drop the letter “s” or affix it to a word before “scraps” you might end up with crap. “Poodle Scrap Designs” sounds like a fine name, until you spell it as a domain poodlescrapdesigns.com – and someone might mistakingly read it as “poodles crap designs”….granted, most people would be understanding of this or not read it that way, but stlil something to take into consideration 
Do Not Copy: Another important thing to remember is that you do not want to copy other names, especially trademarked brand names. For example, if you were “Two Peas Scrapbooking Designs” this could cause some legal issues for you, as Two Peas in a Bucket is a trademarked name. Not to mention, it could cause a lot of confusion for your customers.
Is the Name I Want Available?
Once you have a name chosen, you’ll want to make sure it’s available. If someone else is using the name, you will have to find a better alternative. This can cause a lot of people to get hung up, because it always seems like the good names are taken. But there are good ways to find names that are available.
1. Make Sure it Is Not Registered: If the business name you want is available as a domain name, chances are you’ll be okay. But make sure you also check registered trademarks to make sure the name you want is not listed there also. You can check the United States Trademark Website to research more.
2. Do a Search Online: Searching online in search engines can be one way to check if someone else is using your name, but it may not always be the most reliable. Not all websites or businesses know how to get their website to show up in search engines, but just because they don’t show up in Google, it does not mean you can steal their name.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for coming up with scrapbook business names? Share it in the comments below! And of course, if you are a ScrapVenture member and could use a little help deciding on a scrapbooking business name, just ask in our forum – we’re always more than happy to help!