Kenya's top creative CEO shares 3 tips to consider when naming your company

Creating the perfect name of a company is one of the most important and head wreaking things business owners go though.

It’s a hit and miss situation, if you hit it within no time your company name will be on everyone lips even toddlers, on the other hand if you miss it you are doomed and clients will have a hard time pronouncing your company name and therefore find it hard to refer it to their friends and family alike.

Joyce Muthoni is the CEO/Director of Helium Balloon Company which is based in Nairobi and has a branch in Mombasa.

She has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to naming of companies; she created her first company in 2010 immediately after clearing her studies.

She holds an undergraduate degree from United States International University (USIU) where she pursued International Business Administration and focused on marketing.

Apart from that she comes from a creative family and possesses both artistic and practical skills.

Here is her six pence advice when coming up with a name of a company.

#1. Simplicity always wins

When coming up with a name, many business owners tend to scratch their heads thinking of how to come with the best sounding name, putting all their creativity in the process but Ms. Muthoni says the whole process need not be complicated as we tend to make it.

“I remember when I was deciding to call my first company protique consulting, I was looking for a name that is fancy, a name that sounded unique, chic and elegant and all that, but every time I said it people would say pretty consulting and I would go no no no it is protique consulting (laughs) I found out that I ended up losing the meaning which was protocol and etiquette and no one ever saw that, they always gave it a different connotations. “

#2. Unique but easy to understand

Coca Cola, NIKE, Samsung are some of the best known global brands in the world owing to their uniqueness.

Closer home, Buzeki Enterprises Limited owned by political aspirant Buzeki is one of the companies which has been in the limelight recently, partly because of its unique name.

The company's name has been coined from his name, creativity picking the two first initial letters of his three names; Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop.

The problem is people tend to overdo it when it comes to uniqueness, they think they have to come with a name that sounds like it was coined in Heaven.

How many companies have gone down because of their poor quality products yet they really had cool catchy names? so don’t get caught too much on the name and forget at the end of the day what really matters is the quality of your product and not the name.

"Just make it simple, clean, straight forward, and easy to understand"

#3. Straight forward, don’t complicate it

Life is simple don't complicate it.

“I realize that when you are deciding on a name of a company it needs to be very straightforward, easy to understand and something that people can tell if you are called Helium balloons then you deal with Helium balloons and so that is what I decided I will simply called my company Helium balloons even if you Google helium balloons company the name will easily pops up”