Ask HN: Help me chose a name for my business

2 points by Retailslave 15 years ago | 3 comments

I've asked this already..but I usually make these in the middle of the night due to the timezones so it gets buried.

I'm starting a small business/ The business is mainly an automotive parts distributor to mechanics, not regular retail people. I'm selling fluids, oil, and things like that.Think less actual physical automotive "hardware" and more of stuff like oil filters and sparkplugs and brake fluids.

What are things I should consider when creating a small business? It's a huge project and I'm starting very very small. I pretty much just sell stuff to mechanics, I will try to increase revenue if I'm successful with making connections.

Can you recommend me a name for my business? I'm thinking something like, _____ Auto supplies but I have no idea what to name it. All the names I've come up with are generic.

Any other tips would be highly appreciated, thanks HN!

michael_dorfman 15 years ago |

It doesn't matter, really. I don't think that the mechanics you are selling to are going to care one way or the other if they are buying their sparkplugs from Acme Auto Supplies or Zenith Auto Supplies, or anything in between.

Write down the first dozen names that occur to you. Scratch off any that are hard to pronounce, or hard to spell. Scratch off any that are used by direct competitors, or where the domain name is not available.

That's it, really.

What are things I should consider when creating a small business?

The most important thing to consider when creating a small business is to prioritize, and work on what's most important. This isn't it.

How about "Majestic Auto Supplies"? There, done. What's next?

slater 15 years ago |

Questions that might help with the naming:

- Are you servicing a specific region (don't say "No! ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!", cos not even Amazon manages that)?

- Who are your primary customers going to be? You say mechanics, but are they the only customers possible?

- Does it have to be something with "Auto Supplies" in it? Think of successful sites whose names don't have anything in common with the actual purpose of the site (Google, Yahoo, Zillow...)

- Maybe use your own name to cater to the customer segment that goes for the ol' folksy crap, eg. "Miller's AutoSupplies", "Jefferson Auto Wares" etc.

Retailslave 15 years ago | |

>- Are you servicing a specific region Southern California.

>- Who are your primary customers going to be? You say mechanics, but are they the only customers possible?

Mechanics, other people who will buy from me to distribute.

>- Does it have to be something with "Auto Supplies" in it? Think of successful sites whose names don't have anything in common with the actual purpose of the site (Google, Yahoo, Zillow...)

Not at all, any recommendations are helpful and highly appreciated. That's just what I was thinking..

>Maybe use your own name to cater to the customer segment that goes for the ol' folksy crap

I don't have a cool name that people with associate with. :(