Why Your Name Matters

Most of us don't get to chose our name.

We are stuck with the name our parents gave us.

But your business, that's something you decide.

The Rules have changed over the past 100 years.

My Dad's parents had a restaurant that was named after the family: Howard's Restaurant.

And the business went has had four owners, my grandfather, my uncle, my cousin, and for the past 10 years, a lady named Crystal Ball, who worked for the family for 20 years and bought it when it was for sale.

Crystal could have changed the name, but she saw the value in the name that had spanned generations and kept it intact.

(Apparently her parents had a sense of humor too).

In today's world however, there are several factors to consider when naming your business:

• Is it Unique?
• Is it Descriptive?
• Is it Limiting?
• Is it Confusing?
• Is it too long?
• Is it too short?
• Is it Memorable?
• Is it Social Media & Web friendly?

These are all considerations I had when I registered my company name: ScLoHo Marketing Solutions a few years ago.

The ScLoHo identity has been around for years. It began as an email address on Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail. Then I registered the ScLoHo.com and ScLoHo.net domains and also claimed ScLoHo on about 50 social media sites.

ScLoHo is just abbreviation of the name my parents gave me with the first two letters of my first, middle and last name. It is unique, and it is pronounceable.

Google ScLoHo and you'll come up with a few thousand links to me.

I don't really care if I am found via keywords. I am not looking to build world wide fame and fortune. Many of my coworkers are unaware of my social media presence. Which is fine with me.

One last story about how my social media life and in-person life converge:

This past summer, my wife and I attended a baseball game at Parkview Field, home of the minor league Fort Wayne Tincaps. About the 5th inning, we took a walk around the stadium and a friend of mine that I met via Twitter, yelled out "ScLoHo!"

I stopped and turned around and went over and talked to my friend Andy and noticed that he was with a group of folks that I know and work with from the Asher Advertising Agency who mostly know me as Scott Howard, although a couple of them know me by both identities.

Instead of me explaining to those who didn't know what ScLoHo was all about, I let my friends explain it, which added credibility.

So, to sum it up, you want your name to stand for something.

To stand for something good.

Something good that others will want to know about.

Chose your name wisely.

Guard and protect your name.

And if you want find more about ScLoHo, just go here: http://www.scloho.net/