My Concerns For Naming A Startup
Ive just been thinking about domain names for startups and i was reading a bit of advice regarding naming a startup and the things to consider and something that im thinking about and even writing this post to remind myself of, is that whatever i choose as the name for the startup and of course the domain for that startup is that it’s for the people that im targetting and not the people that they will be targetting.
Unless i change my mind about the startup idea it means that i will be targetting businesses and not consumers but my target market will themselves be targetting consumers and possibly businesses and i need to make sure that im fully aware of who im targetting.
I know that doesn’t mean forgetting all about the customers of what i hope to be my customers (hope that makes sense) after all if i dont provide the right solution to my target market then thats going to make it harder for them to target their market but i need to make sure than im focused on my target market when it comes to choosing the startup domain because it wont be their customers who are looking for my solution, well at least not paying to use it.
Im also thinking about the fact that competitors within a niche will include a keyword that makes sense to have in the domain but maybe just with another keyword added on, either at the beginning of the domain or at the end and while a keyword in the domain is helpful to at least give a hint at what you do and offer, it’s only one of many things that contribute to people finding your site and finding out what you do.
The content on the actual website pages should do quite a bit in helping searchers to find your site and then actually click through to find out more, at least if its written well, gets to the point and has been put together with the target market in mind.
Im thinking that while i will make sure that i target the right keywords for the startup within the site content, it might not be a good idea to choose a name that has the keyword in the domain and just because some of the competitors have that keyword within their domain, i think instead of standing out it is going to make the site blend in and possibly be overlooked when you do eventually rank well enough to be noticed.
I wont choose a domain that is random or “catchy” sounding which could leave people scratching their head and making the decision to not even click through to see if you have what they are looking for but i think that there is no advantage to choosing a domain with a keyword just for it’s relevance when in most cases people perform long tailed searches and the pages of your site provide plenty of opportunity to use keywords in a natural way that still contributes to being found, along with backlinks and others things of course.
Also a domain doesn’t lend itself to editing, unlike the pages of your site, you have the luxury of being able to write plenty for a webpage and to edit it when you want to, but with a domain you could buy one that has what might feel like a useful keyword within it but once its purchased and you’re using it you are stuck with it, sure you can change it if you want but the flexibility isn’t there as it is with the rest of your site.
It wouldn’t be a good idea to keep replacing your domain name everytime you thought you had a better one.
So with the above in mind, i am going to be careful about what i choose as the startup and domain name, i wont obsess over it but i wont take it lightly either.
Calling Yourself an Entrepreneur?
Ive just been watching a video from ecorner.stanford.edu, i haven’t watched it all yet because something mentioned in the video made me stop, think and want to write this post before watching the rest of the video, btw here’s the link to the video if you want to check it out Nature vs. Nurture in Entrepreneurship
They are giving their own personal view on what an entrepreneur is and it’s when it gets to Mark sharing his opinion that it makes me sit up properly, he talks about someone who is willing to take the risk to an extent but not take the risk financially, basically the ones who are only willing to leave their jobs and go into the business full time if they get funded and as Mark says himself he doesn’t think that type of person will be a great entrepreneur.
I think that entrepreneur is an overused word anyway, if you watch the video you will see that there is some disagreement soon after Mark makes his point in the video.
Personally i dont think that everyone who has a business is an entrepreneur, looking at the definition for a second
- A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so.
I mean does that make a person who runs a completely illegal business an entrepreneur? Could you call a drug dealer an entrepreneur, whether large or small, and would it be justifiable?
While obviously no one is born as one, just in the same sense that no one is born a musician, actor, farmer, author or whatever, clearly some people will be better at it, for different reasons but some definately will be better.
I think that too many are too quick to call themselves or someone they associate with an entrepreneur when in fact they might not be quite the risk taker that they see themselves as.
Dont Tell People You’re Going To Change The Way They Do Something
I have noticed that some startups advertise their offering as “going to change the way you [insert task here]” but i’m sure that ive read many times that people dont like change.
Although i can appreciate a startup wanting to appear like they know where they are going with what they are offering to users/customers it seems unlikely that the people behind the startup will know themselves the direction that they will go in, so it seems bold, too bold to announce on your homepage or elsewhere that your application will change the way that people do something.
To me it sounds like forcing people to do something differently, and being too sure of yourself that you can get people to start doing something differently, if the way of doing something that your application will provide means that it will be easier, quicker, less hassle, better in some way then it would be more accurate to suggest that instead, i think that more people will connect with something that is said to be easier, quicker, better than the others.
While most people do adapt to change quicker than they realise, i think this works best when it’s not announced, for example you might be using a social networking app, they make quite a bold change to something or even a few changes in one go, it knocks you and millions of others out of your comfort zone for a short time, you might even express your frustration at the change, as others might do too.
But more often than not you quickly adapt to this new way of doing things, the people behind the application might mention some time after the change that this is the new way to do a particular something, but they dont usually tell you beforehand that they are going to change the way people do something.
Change can literally frighten some people, most people like to feel in control of most areas of their daily life, so to some people, appearing like your startup will cause a significant change might actually put more people off trying it than it will actually attract people, even if you are mentioning a few benefits within the offering.
I will take a guess that those suggesting that their startup will cause change are associating it with the word disruptive, a word that is used way too often, no need for me to go into what’s wrong with that, i agree with many that there are too many buzzwords thrown around in the startup world.
Making bold statements is fine if you can really back it up, but with a startup naturally being uncertain it might cause some embarrassment or simply appear no different to a potential user than other startups that also suggest that their application will change something in the lives of people.