Hi Everyone

There have been posts on this forum about the importance of making sure your name is unique. This is my story to reinforce this have-to step in branding your name.

I started thinking about creating my business January 2009, when I started the Virtual Assistant Program. Right from the beginning I wanted Nancy's Virtual Office. My goal and forte is to provide a complete office support, from data base management to web page design. My target market would require this type of support. I felt my name encompassed this, I never wavered from having this name.

I registered my name, but only in Canada, so step number one, (which I will find out about on Monday) is to do a Global search. My name was not taken and so I registered it. I obtained my business license, created my marketing materials (ie. letterhead, business cards, flyer, brochure etc.) I was not interested in a web site at this time, as I was taking the web site design course in my program the following January.

As it happened, my husband and I were back in Ontario in August 2009, and while visiting my nephew, who is a web design specialist as well as hosts web sites, he created a basic web site for me (which I totally revamped after my course). When he went to register my domain name, Nancy's Virtual Office, we discovered there was another business by that name. The owner lived in Arizona and her market was different then mine. I did talk to several people, and I even emailed the owner, and I still had support with keeping my name.

Now a year later, I am working with Diana Ennen branding my company (I highly recommend coaching of some sort if you are just starting out) and we googled searched Nancy's Virtual Office. Out of the 10 hits on the first page, the other one had about 6 or 7 hits and I had about 3. I have to tell you I was still pretty excited to see my site on the first page. But as Diana pointed out it could still get confusing for clients. I also had a post on one of those hits, and again as Diana pointed out, people might think it is the other business and go to them.

So we brainstormed. and although I still have to check out that nobody has this name anywhere, and I will buy the domain name for it, we came up with a name that I really like. Once I have verified the name I will be making an announcement.

So, again, this is just to reinforce how important it is to check your name. Sometimes even a close name can create confusion. You want to be unique so when people see your image they know you are the one for them.