Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

All In A Name

I’m at that very social phase of starting my business—holding at least three meetings a day; introducing my concept to anyone who will listen; taking down tons of advice, guidance, and contacts—in order to set up even more meetings!  It’s an absolutely exhilarating and exhausting time, but it’s also helping me mold my concept into the best version it can be—so totally worth it!

It seems that the industry experts, friends, and mentors I’ve been meeting have had an opinion on almost every aspect of my business BUT its name.  Once we get to the name, they exclaim with glee—“that’s great!” “makes perfect sense! “  “absolutely love it!”  If only they had a similar reaction to my Year 3 Pro Forma…but that’s neither here nor there.  Since I’ve received such positive response from my name I thought I’d share how it came about, and why I feel it is so important.

My business is a brick and mortar retail concept for healthy skincare products.  I will sell the organic and natural beauty products that are found only in natural grocers and online today.  I will deliver a great experience and education on these products in my store.  The thing is—people are currently confused by what’s a healthy beauty product, and what’s not.  They’re intimidated by all of the “natural” and “organic” noise out there.  As such, I knew I wanted to avoid natural or organic in my name.

I also knew I wanted the name to be two syllables, and not convey anything to the consumer but the brand itself.  Think of all the brandnomers you use daily: I’m going to get a “kleenex”, eat some “jello”, “xerox” my document, “fedex” my package, or use “chapstick”.  These brandnomers are so sticky because they’re easy to pronounce, easy to remember, short, and relate to nothing but the product being sold.

Finally, I wanted the name to convey a short, succinct story.  I wanted it to describe my business somehow, without being too contrived or far-fetched.  So I took a cue from food and beverage CPG companies (U.S. coffee companies often use Italian for product naming) and looked up my business’ values in Gaelic.  With a name like Tara O’Connor Foley, Gaelic seemed like the best place to start…  Lo and behold, I found the absolute perfect name!  It’s two syllables.  It’s easy to pronounce.  It means “healthy and wholesome,” which describes my business perfectly.  And it doesn’t hurt that it’s so close to my own last name, either.

With all that, ladies and gentlemen, I give you my business name: FOLLAIN!  I hope you like it as much as I do, and I hope you will come to me if you have any other questions on figuring out the best name for your own business!  I had a great time with this, and think you could too.  Until next time…this is Tara Foley from Follain!

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