What’s In a Name? A lot

This StartupJournal article offers advice for naming a business:

“According to David Burd, president of The Naming Company in East Stroudsburg, Pa., it’s common for new entrepreneurs to try to convey too much in their business names. ‘A name is not an ad campaign,’ he says. ‘It allows you to write checks and do business. It’s not the end-all, be-all of marketing.’

Instead, he says, your name should be memorable, simple and easy to pronounce. Start-ups should avoid long names such as Genevieve’s Fishing and Tackle Supplies, which are difficult in some media, he adds. ‘On the radio, she’d be saying, ‘that’s Genevieve, spelled, g-e-n-e-v-i-e-v-e-no apostrophe-s hyphen fishing hyphen tackle dot-com, let me repeat, that’s…’ ‘

When conjuring up a name for a new company or product, Mr. Burd and his team consider four types: descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary and fanciful. A descriptive name says just what it is (Beaded Jewelry Inc.). A suggestive name applies a quality or attribute of your product (say, Indonesian Jewelry, if all your beads were from Indonesia). An arbitrary name has no connection to what you are selling, along the lines of, say, Apple Computer Inc. A fanciful name is a made-up word: Xerox Corp., or Accenture Ltd. ”

It should be noted as well that the four types of names are also ranked in order of the “strength” of a trademark. Not the value of the trademark, but its strength — the potential for the holder of the mark to prevent others from using similar marks. The “strongest” marks in this sense are (in order) — fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive.

Women Entrepreneurs Can Promote Their Companies and Encourage Others by Sharing Lessons Learned

The re:invention blog – for women entrepreneurs is starting a new weekly feature stating:

“This is a chance for the nation’s 10.6 million women entrepreneurs to get free publicity and exposure for their business. The new feature, 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM will appear each Saturday.

We’ll share background about your company and a link to your company website along with your personal top 10 success strategies tips; the top 10 things you have learned while building your business.”

Great Idea.

How to Catch Website Copyright Infringers

“Copyright protection for a web site is just as enforceable as it is for traditional media. U.S. copyright law states that electronic files—including web files—are copyrighted the moment they’re put into a tangible form, even if they’re not on display to the general public. Protected web files may include the site’s content, code, scripting, graphic images, sound and video files.

‘One way to determine if your site’s content has been stolen is to use the search engines,’ said Matt Naeger, Vice President and General Counsel at IMPAQT. ‘The primary way is to see your copy in the search results. Copy-paste an extended piece of text from your web site and see what other web sites show up for that same text. Typically two sites shouldn’t legitimately show up for the exact same web copy. I would say I have seen higher rates of recidivism, if you can show publication through the search engine.'”

From Search Engine Watch article via this Small Business Software post.

Starting a Business? Find a Soul Mate

“So how does a web-based application startup actually get started? Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start gives us good rules for getting going, such as

Think big. Don’t just do things 10% or 15% or 20% better. Think 10 times better. Think more dramatic improvement. Think different curve, not same curve. Think getting to the next curve. Think creating the next curve.

When you design your product or service you should not be afraid; you should want to polarize people. You should want people to look at your product or service and say “I love it” or “I hate it”. The worst thing is indifference.

But my favorite Guy Kawasaki rule for getting going is,

You need to find soul mates. You know, in America, and particularly Silicon Valley, there is the myth of the sole entrepreneur. This is the Steve Jobs, the Henry Ford, the Anita Roddick, the Richard Branson, the Thomas Edison working alone, genius doing it by all by himself. And in fact, I think if you analyze even these companies history is wrong. All of those people had groups and were members of a team. History is wrong.

It is not about one person, the sole entrepreneur, it about the group of entrepreneurs. Hence my second recommendation is you need to find some soul mates, the people who are drinking the same Kool-Aid that you are. Find some soul mates.”

From this Adam Rifkin post.

Research, Research, Research Your Small Business Idea

“So how do you know if your idea [for a small business] will fly? Research, research, research. Here are a few tips on how to get started.

Talk to Friends, Family and Strangers…

Next, talk to people in the industry you’re targeting. Be careful, of course, but don’t be paralyzed with fears that these people will steal your idea…

You might also want take your business idea to a chapter office of SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives…

Market Research

We’ll be blunt: Market research is essential. This kind of information-gathering can include everything from paying a research firm to prepare a sophisticated industry report to passing out a questionnaire on a street corner…

Try a Test Run

No matter how great your business idea looks on paper, you won’t know how your target audience will react until you give it a trial run…”

From this Smartmoney.com article via this ESD post.

Just Do It

“I think action and risk taking is what separates great entrepreneurs from the pack. I am not advocating blind risk taking, but I am advocating making a decision based on less than perfect information and going for it. More often than not, you will be rewarded for doing that.”

From A VC: Analysis Paralysis.

VOIP: “If it moves, tax it”

“Over the course of the next year, VoIP and other Internet content providers will face an increasing number of tax questions. Although the protections of the Internet Tax Freedom Act were extended – IP voice was excluded from the scope of the new legislation. Although Senator Sununu and Congressman Pickering introduced versions of the ‘VOIP Regulatory Freedom Act of 2004’ the legislation has not yet been reintroduced. Under these reasonable proposals, VoIP would have been exempt from a patchwork of multiple and discriminatory state regulations; the bill would have also preempted the states from imposing upon VoIP applications various geographic tax burdens.

While it’s unclear what 2005 holds for VoIP, President Ronald Reagan’s thoughts on government generally can provide some foresight on the upcoming legislative and regulatory debate. When asked whether the government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases, Regan responded: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Whatever direction telecommunications reform takes in 2005 – taxation, regulation and subsidies will clearly be at the top of the policy agenda for VoIP.”

From this Swidler Berlin LLP article from Mondaq.

Ex-Steeler Swann Eyes Pa. Governor Post

“Former Steelers star Lynn Swann has taken the first step toward running for governor of Pennsylvania.

The Hall of Fame wide receiver filed papers Wednesday forming a campaign committee for governor, which allows him to begin raising money for a campaign.

Mr. Swann, a Republican, has worked as a broadcaster since his retirement as a wide receiver.

‘I will spend time introducing myself to communities across the commonwealth,’ he said in a statement. ‘As I consider my personal decision regarding the upcoming gubernatorial race, we will also explore the potential political and financial support for my candidacy.’

From this Pittsburgh Business Times article.

College-Cult DVDs

If you like me have a kid in college, you may wonder what the latest college cult flicks are on campus. Wonder no more. This article from The Daily Princetonian reveals:

“As Hollywood perfects its formula for high-grossing, high-profile and high-budget movies geared toward audiences with ever-decreasing attention spans, the college-cult DVD has emerged as a niche for innovative films and TV shows — even those doomed to poor ticket sales and a limited audience. Thanks to a limited but devoted fan base, these DVDs enjoy unusually high sales despite their seemingly limited appeal and usually art house form. After an informal campus survey, we’ve compiled a must-have list with a few classic and some more recent cult DVDs — for those with an interest in escaping Hollywood for a while.” The list:

Donnie Darko
Napoleon Dynamite
The Big Lebowski
Kill Bill I & II
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Spirited Away
Garden State
Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain
Rushmore
Fight Club
Nip/Tuck
The Ring
Super Troopers
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Selecting Small Business Accounting Software

“In the process of selecting accounting software for your small business? There are quite a few choices: Quickbooks, Peachtree, Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft Solomon, MYOB, Netsuite, Accpac, Simply Accounting, AccountEdge and a hundred others. How do you find good small business accounting software that works for your business?”

This article from Gaebler Ventures discusses some important things to consider when buying accounting software.