DBA Name

Now that you’ve decided on your business entity. it’s time to choose your business name. Also referred to as a Doing Business as Name, or DBA name. This is the most exciting and motivating step in starting up a small business. You are getting closer to seeing your vision come to fruition. You should choose a business name that represents your brand. You want people to understand what your business offers.

For example, if you have a credit repair business called, “Clean It Up.” At first glance, people may think that you are a house cleaning service. If you offer credit repair a good business name would be Clean It Up Credit Repair, or The Clean Credit Co., and so on. Having that clear mission in the name of your business helps create better brand awareness so people know exactly what services you offer, or products that you sell.

When my husband and I first started our catering business, we wanted to make it clear that our business brand would show our team effort. Initially, we decided on “His & Hers Tacos-N-Cakes.” We offered tacos, stuffed pasta shells, cupcakes, & cheesecakes.

However, it was something about that DBA name that just wasn’t translating as the one for me. I felt that the name made our business sound like we specialized in large, extravagant cakes when our desserts were more like quick treats. So, we went back to the drawing board and came up with, “His & Hers Tacos-N-Treats.” This name included our specialty, which made our business brand a bit clearer. Eventually, in our marketing and ads, we coined the hashtag #TN-T. We were still in the beginning phase of our business, so we were not yet officially a registered merchant.

We used the hashtag T-N-T so much that our customers started to refer to us as TNT Treats throughout our reviews. We even started to call ourselves T-N-T when we spoke about our business. Once we officially registered our DBA name, we decided on something a little different than the original DBA name.

As I said before, it is very important to try to incorporate your mission in your DBA name. So, we still wanted our business to show that we were partners and that we both provide different things in our business. Once we registered our DBA name we decided on, His & Hers TNT Treats.

TNT is technically also known as an acronym for an explosive chemical compound, so we created a catchy slogan, “His Tacos + Her Treats= Explosive Eats!” Our slogan was a little cheesy, but it translated exactly what our specialty, and mission was.

Since we have created that brand awareness people that are familiar with our business know that we are a married couple, hence the His & Hers, and they are aware that he makes the tacos, while I bake the treats.

Use this strategy when deciding on your business name. Try to come up with three similar names and choose the best fit through process of elimination. You can also create a catchy slogan first to help narrow it down. Whichever slogan sounds best you can take the name from that.