Your business name

I'm curious...there are so many painters and so many names. How do you know you are not using someone's business name? Is there a way to search and then protect the name you have chosen if no one else is using it? And, if there is, is it very expensive?

Thanks. I have no head for business at all and when you talk numbers it's like the Charlie Brown cartoon....waaa...waaa...waaa.

It's complicated, there are lots of ways that people TRY... but long story short, not really. You should search your area to make sure there isn't someone in your province/state/etc with the same or a similar name to avoid confusion and registering your business with the government will generally prevent someone else from registering the exact same thing, but it's a common problem (at least with clowns) that there are a million named Bubbles and Smilie, etc and not much that can really be done about it. I think there is a national clown registry or something, but I can't say that anyone really checks it.

My clown name is apparently the name of some obscure comic book character that I can't find any information about other than something to do with aliens and conspiracy theories. LOL And the .com version of my website belongs to some family's bio/blog thing.

I love your clown name, Perry! I think it's very clever and unique.

Thanks for asking, daydreamer. I was wondering the same thing.

Thanks, Perry, but this is more what I'm wondering...Let's say I want to name my face painting business something like Fun Fabulous Faces. I Google it and nothing comes up. Great. I get business cards, do a Web Page and advertise. Sometime down the road I get contacted. Hey...you stole my name. I'm Fun Fabulous Faces and have been for 8 yrs. Now, how would I know that and how would original Fun Fabulous Faces have protected her name? I'm just ignorant in this whole business end!! Thanks!!!

usualy when you buy a dot com they allow you to search for the one you want - that way you know if it's taken or not... they won't let you have it if someone else does. That's the safest way.

do some google searching, try the .com .org .biz etc versions of the name that you want and see if there are any sites with that name (and how far away they are if they do exist)

BUT... if you have a name you really REALLY like and want to use, don't go through an ISP right away because if you search it through them and don't purchase it if available, someone else may buy it before you do.

Search every other way you can, then, when you have narrowed it down to your top 1 to 3 possible choices, then go through the ISP to do the search and purchase/register the domain name.

Thank you so much Perry, Tash and Shannon!! This is all so involved. It's amazing. You start out doing something that seems fun, fall in love with it and then realize it is serious business. The education goes far beyond painting. For the young kids starting out, they know about computers, searches, etc. For some of us older dogs, learning the new tricks go well beyond woof woof.

There's a few websites dotted around the place that let you search business names. But the way I did it was for instance if you wanted the name 'Fun Face Painting' (Hardly imaginative but you get the idea...) I typed into my browser:

www.funfacepainting.com
www.funfacepainting.co.uk
www.funfacepainting.net

and so on... And if no websites come up then it's probably okay.

I don't think there's any foolproof search unfortunately...

I have had quite a problem with this. I put in happyfacepainting and no one had it. so I bought the domain. then I discovered that the person who created 3 min cheek art. Roberta M.?(I cant think of her last name at the moment.)Has the name but it is prefaced by her name so it did not show. this was last year. so i called go daddy and they let me choose another and I just discovered that the name I registered ( i did a name search, you have to in order to register) and have had a logo, cards, and banners made for is someone else's name too. They are in the uk and it is not a dot com. I see many names that are the same but are in different country. I will have to deal with this but I am really having trouble coming up with a new name I am not looking forward to changing everything. $$$$$
I thought I did all the right research. Now I can find it pretty easy when I search but it never came up when I was looking. I found it on facebook. What a drag.

So best advise: Be thorough.

Laurie

I wanted something that said exciting and I liked the name Razzmatazz. I looked it up on the Internet and everybody and his brother is using it. I do airbrush tattoos and people call my face painting tattoos too, so I changed the spelling a bit and called it Razmatattz. (the tattz at the end denoting tattoos) So far as I know no one but me has that name on the Internet. I also got a DBA in my town as well. I check every now and then just to see if anything pops up. Maybe you could do something similar and just change a name a bit to make is sound unique. I had the problem too of coming up with a cool sounding name I liked and finding out 10 or more people already claimed it. I guess great minds think alike.

You should also do a registry search - this can be done at a registry office, municpal office, etc. To check if anyone else has the name registered in your jurisdiction...

There are a lot of ways to check.

I just use MY name... keeps it simple and no real problem with someone else duplicating it.