Finding the Right Name for your Business is Part of a Travel Agent EducationWHAT’S IN A NAME?by Kelly Monaghan, CTCSelecting a name for your home-based travel business is one of your first and most important tasks and part of a travel agent education. Unfortunately, many beginners don’t realize the importance of the right name and choose one in haste or without thinking of the consequences. Devoting a little time and thought to this process can pay big dividends later on. By the way, my expertise is in the homebased travel area, so theexamples I use refer to home travel agencies. But the principals apply to any homebased business. There are three main areas to consider when choosing a name for your business: Legal Marketing Personal Don’t let the word "legal" scare you, but some commonsense precautions need to be taken when choosing a name. Your first concern is at the local level. Once you’ve picked a name, you’ll have to register it at the county court house so you can get a business checking account. If you live in Cleveland and decide to call your business "Tammy’s Travel" the fact that there’s a Tammy’s Travel in Phoenix is most likely not a problem. But if there’s one in Cleveland, you probably won’t be able to register your chosen name at the county court house, where the clerks will check to make sure there is no duplication of business names. So you should check the "availability" of a name at the courthouse before you get too attached to it. Another precaution you should take is making sure your name doesn’t infringe on someone else’s trademark. Let’s say you decide that your travel business will specialize in American vacations only and you figure "American Express Travel" would be a great name. Wrong! This is a fairly obvious example, but you could accidentally infringe on a trademark without knowing it. A nationwide Yellow Pages search on the Internet should turn up companies with the name you’re interested in (if any exist). If you have come up with what you think is a pretty nifty name, you may want to consider trademarking it. Consult a lawyer who specializes in trademarks and be prepared to pay well for your vanity. While it’s possible to have legal problems with your business name, the odds are that you will have no troubles whatsoever regardless of the name you pick. Marketing considerations, therefore, are far more important and deserve the lion’s share of your attention. Those of you who have taken my home study course know how I feel about specializing. Ideally, your business name should reflect your specialty. If you’ve decided to specialize in trips to Tunisia, "Tammy’s Tunisian Tours and Travel" is a better choice than "Tammy’s Travel." (By the way, I am making up all the names I use in this article, so any similarity to actual businesses is purely coincidental.) In the best of all possible worlds, your business name will tell your best prospects, "This is the place to call." Names like "Italian Villa Holidays," "Ski Trips Unlimited," and "Japan With Jane" immediately tell people what you do. Even a name like "Hole In One Travel" hints at a golf specialty.If you can’t put your specialty in the name itself, plan to add a descriptive tagline on your business card (and anywhere else your business name appears). For example, at the courthouse you could be listed as "Tammy’s Travel" but your business card could say "Tammy’s Travel – The Tunisian Specialists." That brings us to the last major consideration in selecting a name – personal preference. My guess is that this is the overriding consideration for most home-based agents when picking a name. Some of them are very creative, clever, or amusing. Certainly a memorable name like "I’m Outta Here!" (a real one, this time) has marketing value, but what exactly does the business do? Hopefully, they use a good descriptive subhead or tagline on their business card. Of course, ultimately the name you choose, like your business itself, is an expression of your own personality. So if a name "speaks" to you, go for it, but keep your target customer in mind. If you’ve decided to call your travel business "Like Totally Travel, Dude" I won’t say you nay. Just be sure that your prospective customers are on the same wavelength. *****About The Author: Kelly Monaghan is the owner of the Home-Based Travel Agent Resource Center. He has heped thousands of people set up and succeed in their own home-based travel business. His home study course shows you how to work for yourself, instead of being at the mercy of the business-opportunity vendors, and how to get all the travel benefits you're entitled to. http://www.hometravelagency.com/cgi-bin/at.cgi?a=469063
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