It’s all well and good having a crafting skill but for most of us, we don’t know how to monetize that skill. For those who do they want to begin selling their wares and do so to family and friends but hit a wall when it comes to selling mainstream.
However, what are you going to name your new craft venture? How do you put this into words? How do you give meaning to your business name? How can you grab someone’s attention so they know exactly what you are selling just from the name alone?
There are many various kinds of artists, and being crafty is one of them. Make ugly things beautiful. Make the unusable functional. For many of us, we have the ability to give fresh life to old things and more.
If we focus here then we can find a name that is not only descriptive and informative but can also be something to be proud of as your brand.
How to pick a name
We need to follow a step-by-step process to get to the point where we not only have a name we like but we are fairly confident that it does not already exist and our name will now infringe on any existing business.
List
When we come to the point of choosing there are many ways we can start but the most reliable and fun is with a pen and paper. Get brainstorming and write down a list of names you like the sound of. Initially, there will be many you cannot use because your mind will automatically think about existing businesses but that’s ok, get it out of your system, write them all down for now.
Think about items you craft with
When we start to add names to our list we can integrate our crafting tools and materials into our name to give it meaning. Names like ‘Needles and wool crafts’ for example, or ‘The papercraft studio’ are good examples of this. They are both easily identifiable with regards to who they are and what they make.
Think about where you are
We can use locations to add uniqueness to your name but not just your geographical location but your physical location too. We can use this idea in two ways. Firstly, you could incorporate the city or state into your name, for example: ‘Denver woodcarving’ or maybe ‘Louisiana glass crafts’ both of these allude to where in the country you are so local customers may be able to visit you in person.
Secondly, you could refer to the type of building you are working from. names using this style could be in the form of ‘The knitting room’, ‘The cardboard crafting barn’, or maybe ‘The candle making cottage’.
Use plays on words or puns
This is one of the fun ones as you can think of something amusing or catchy to make your potential customers remember you, nothing sticks in the mind quite like a cheesy ‘dad joke’ so use this well. Some names you could use might be ‘The crafting sew and sews’, or ‘Wooden it be good’, or maybe ‘Knot us ropemakers’
Check locally/nationally to see if the name already exists
If you are looking to have a physical store or presence then you will need to check both locally and Nationally to see if your business name already exists. You may need to scratch it off the list if it does as even minor deviations can still possibly infringe on someone’s intellectual property like trying to open a store called J-Mart.
Check the internet for a domain name
If you are looking to sell online, which I highly recommend if you want to make some serious money crafting, then you need to check a site like Namecheap or GoDaddy to confirm your name does not already exist, this will be in addition to checking for your business name locally/nationally to ensure there is no conflict.
Avoid adding numbers, plurals, or prefixes to existing entities
This one is super important, avoid using existing business names and add something to it to try and hijack their success, it will fail miserably and could get you in a lot of legal trouble, things to avoid can include:
The – eg. The K-Mart
A – eg. A Bodyshop
Plurals – Apples
Try and of these to try and game the system may work for a very short time but the associated companies will find out and will ruin you, both your reputation and financially.
Test Your Idea
This is the most nerve-wracking but also the most fun. Once you have come up with your name ask your family, friends, and neighbors to see if they like the sound of it and also what springs to mind when they hear the name. If many say it reminds them of your craft business then you are on the right track, if not tell them your business and if they cannot see the association then maybe you need to go back to the drawing board, if they can, however, then you’ll be good to go!
If you are not sure about what type of crafting business you want to start then take a look at these ideas to help you: