Naming

You have probably already thought up a clever name for your baby food business. It is one of the most gratifying parts of the startup phase. You probably woke up in the middle of the night with some fabulous name or had some sort of naming epiphany while taking a shower.

But if you haven't come up with a name yet let me help you come up with a strategy for creating the right name for your business.

Branding Yourself.

A quick and easy way to name your company is to give it your own name. Like: "Mischelle's Baby Food Catering" or "Mischelle's Baby Food Service". It is quick, it is easy, and if you add your last name it is unlikely that someone else has already trade marked the name. "Chef Mischelle Davis' Baby Food Bistro".

The Thesaurus Strategy.

A good thesaurus is your best friend when trying to find the right name. If you don't have one on your bookshelf you can go to an online thesaurus.

Spend time looking up synonyms for words that relate to what you do. Mix and match the words coming up with lots of combinations that seem to fit your personality and the mission of your baby food business. During my 15 year career in high tech I helped name several companies and lots of products. Whether we came up with a name or selves or hired a fancy, high-priced branding or advertising company to help us we ALWAYS broke out the thesaurus.

You'll need several potential names as some enterprising mompreneur may have already trade marked one of the names. Try playing around with synonyms to words like: baby, food, plate, cup, fresh, new, dinner, meal, nutritious, good, healthy, little, sweet, farm, chef, bliss, tummy, spring, birth, mother, etc.

The Contest Method.

If you are not the creative type and are more concerned about the operational pieces of getting a baby food company up and running, you can always turn the naming of your company into a marketing event.

You may already be a member of an online parenting group. Most cities have a Google or Yahoo! news group dedicated to local parenting issues. In big cities like Seattle every neighborhood has one. Tell the parents in your online community that you are going to be launching a baby food service and offer FREE baby food to the person who comes up with your company name.

This is a great way to create some buzz for your company and get your potential customers involved. During the later chapters of this book you will learn just how important customer involvement is.

Taglines

It's difficult starting a new business and creating an effective business name and brand. Businesses often have names that don't particularly resemble their products and services - a tagline can help clarify.

Taglines are typically descriptive phrases that accompany a business name. E.g. Sprouts ' "Catering to baby's nutritional needs". Taglines help explain what your business does or create a feeling associated with it. They should be simple and memorable.

There are generally two types of taglines. Descriptive: they explain what your business does. Emotional: They create a tone or feeling about your business.

When creating a tagline follow these simple rules.
- Keep It Simple - short and simple, easy to remember
- Affirmative - people like positive statements - negatives are a turn-off
- Appealing - the tagline should spark interest
- Enduring - your tagline might around for years, so don't add text that could date it
Baby food catering, delivery, etc. is a new idea. Help potential customers quickly identify what you do by choosing a good tagline.

Logo Creation

Since any business that is associated with babies is inherently emotional and cute you can feel free to break all of the corporate rules about logo creation. Have fun! Get creative. In the case of a baby food business it can actually be positive. But remember when choosing a name, creating a tagline, and developing a logo this is a FOOD BUSINESS. Food that people need to feel good about giving their babies. You need to establish that you are trustworthy—even before they try the food. So don't go crazy.

I have worked for some software companies that would easily spend $250,000 creating a logo. Most of us don't have that kind of money to spend when starting a new business. But luckily there are great new ways to get "killer creative" at affordable prices.
If you don't have a friend who is a graphic designer consider looking for one of the online logo creation services. Some do surprisingly good work.

During the creation of Sprouts we used DesignOutpost You post your logo requirements and desired price and artists compete to win your business. You can see some of the logo designs that we did not choose in the appendix.