Choosing A Company Name:

Choosing a company name is very important.
As a "sole proprietor" you may want to simply operate under your given name. For instance, I could operate under "Martin Lemieux". Doing so could ultimately help you brand your name like "Martha Stewart" or other bigs names.

Choosing Your Family Name For Business:
Many small "mom & pop" operations have a family name for their business just like: "Luigis Pizza" or "Bob's Catering". This is usually good for companies that wish to stay within the local market and aren't interested in competing on a world level.

Choosing A Corporate Business Name:
Selecting a name for your company may be one of the hardest things you do. Just remember, you can always change the one you have. A smart move would be to include the type of business you'll be operating within your name, for instance: "Smart Web Design" or "Cheeze It Pizza". This will ultimately tell anyone what you do just be reading your name.

Not everyone selects their name in the same fashion. Some try to combine words together, some just come up with something very catchy. Whatever you choose, always make sure it's available in your industry.

Checking Your Business Name:
Doing a business name check is very important. For 1, someone within your state or province may already have your name and you may not be able to operate under the same name. For 2, let's say someone has the same name but different industry, they many have already taken the web site address that you were after.

Take Smartads for instance, we knew from the get-go that www.smartads.com was taken but considering the nature of our business and location, it did not matter to us since we could always get www.smartads.info, www.smartads.ca, www.smartads.net etc. There were many other opportunities for us to choose from.

Whatever you decide, always try to get as much feedback from others as you can. People usually know a good name from a bad one and may have questions as to why you selected the name you did.

Once you've selected your name, now time to register your business.

Now onto...