Personal Wealth Management

Care must be used when choosing a business name.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners must create strong names that enhance the firm’s business prospects. The names must also be legal.

The same rules apply to product names and business processes. 

There have been a multitude of poorly named products throughout history. From the greenest entrepreneur up to the largest of companies. No one is immune.

Language or Cultural Differences

Often the problem relates to language or cultural differences.

Not something that can normally be guessed at by small companies. If you operate primarily in the U.S., who knows what will offend people in Kazakhstan or Iceland.

But if you ever intend to sell your product in a culturally different environment, you need to take the time (and money) to ensure that there are no problems.

My favourite example is from the car brand, Chevrolet. They had a very popular car, the Chevy Nova. Always a good idea to leverage off an existing, strong-selling, brand name when expanding to new markets. Well, unless that brand is the Chevy Nova and the new markets are Spanish in nature. For those not chuckling because they do not speak Spanish, “no va” means “no go” in Spanish. Not a great slogan for a new car.

Yes, I know that some claim this story is overblown and make excuses for General Motors. Technically the justifications are correct. But do you think that if someone was designing a car from scratch, they would name it akin to “no go”? Not likely. Plus, it is a funny anecdote.

You can google other examples of well-chosen names such as Pee Cola or Only Puke chips.

Lawyers, Lawyers, and More Lawyers

Way back when I was in university, one of my business law professors said that there were more law graduates in the U.S. driving taxis than actually practising law.

Lawyers are in the business of selling their services and making money. Nothing wrong with that. However, you do get a lot of what I will call predatory practising. Where lawyers and their clients will try to use every loophole to win a case, no matter how dodgy the issue.

McDonalds’ coffee too hot? Let’s sue!

Woman driving while impaired and crashing her car? Let’s sue! She is suing the bar for selling alcohol to her as she was underage. Okay, maybe an argument to be made (although was she at no fault herself for trying to buy liquor while underage???). Not content with that, she is also suing “the Department of Transportation and the town of Bluffton and Beaufort County claiming they had failed to properly maintain the road where she crashed.”

I expect that if she had killed anyone in the crash, she would have sued their estate too. Probably for damage they caused to her car on impact and the emotional stress of seeing someone die.

Yes, yes, yes. Lawyers play a valuable role in society protecting people from evil companies. And I have no issue with lawyers protecting people in legitimate instances. But too often things go beyond common-sense and proper proportion.

When you are running a small business, you will see the impact this has on your bottom line. It may be in the extra costs incurred to ensure no one could possibly get hurt from your product. Regardless of how hard they try. Or the extra insurance needed to protect your business. Or the time and money needed to deal with frivolous suits.

So spend the time before to safeguard your products and processes to minimize the possibility of problems.

Predatory lawyering can extend to the names you choose for your products and processes. Like with your business name, take some time to ensure that there are no problems with names given to products or processes.

Otherwise, you may just be writing letters like this one as a way to stay sane.