Choosing My Business Name Was A Challenge

Oh, man! Choosing my business name was a freakin' challenge.

I remember sitting around the dining room table with my hubby tossing around all kinds of names but none felt quite perfect. I, of course, then turned to my 2nd best friend, Google (because hubby will always be my best-est friend). I browsed, searched, and browsed some more.

I had pages and pages of notes on what “the experts” suggested.

I headed back to the dining room table with hubby and we tossed words around once again.  And again, I didn’t find anything that was perfect.

I did more research. I took more notes.

I finally decided that I would go with Prospective Perceptions. Go ahead, try and say that three times fast. It’s a tongue twister for sure.

My clients couldn’t say it and truth be told I struggled with it myself. But, it was the 100,000th name and I was worn down. I just wanted to move on to the next thing on my business start-up checklist.

So, for the first year of my business, I chose the business name: Prospective Perceptions.

Ironically, I don’t think it held me back. I was attracting clients and depositing checks just fine.

People didn’t really seem to care about the name of my business. They cared more about what coaching was, how it worked, and why someone would hire a coach. Go figure!

Oh, the irony. I tried to choose my business name so that described what I did (like “the experts said to”) and long story short -- it didn’t work.

I thought Prospective Perceptions explained that through coaching I would help you dig deep into what you see, believe, and perceive, and through that awareness, you would be able to make life and business decisions more clearly and confidently.

Ha! I guess others didn’t get my deep perspective.

So, while it worked, I was always wanting something different. Something more me.

Nothing came. Day after day, week after week, and still nothing better.

Oh, there were lots of ideas but no .com available. And again listening to “the experts” I knew it was absolutely required that you have your business name and your .com be the same.

Then it happened!

I walked into a networking event and a woman from across the room calls out to me saying “Coach Erin, come here. I want you to meet someone.”

She then says “Carol, you need to meet Coach Erin. She’s helping us all make clearer decisions in our businesses and she’s awesome.”

While I was, of course, appreciative of the compliment on my coaching I was WAY more excited at the name -- Coach Erin.

It felt SO perfect. It had to be it.

I called my hubby before even driving away from the meeting. I told him the story and he immediately, without prompting, said “Yes! That’s perfect!” I couldn’t wait to get home and see if the .com was available.

That’s where the excitement wore off. CoachErin.com was NOT available. Ugh!

The perfectly perfect business name and its URL weren’t available.

Ok, I can compromise. I’ll choose the business name: LifeCoachErin. After all, I’m helping women with their business and their life. It will work. It’s close. Yes! I’m going with it.

But, that actually confused things more than Prospective Perceptions ever did. Now women began to think I didn’t work on their businesses anymore.

Ugh! This is not working. What am I to do? I didn't think choosing my business name would be this dang hard!

That’s when my step-son (age 17 at the time) yells out, “What about ecoacherin.com since you work with entrepreneurs and you’re pretty energetic, too.” I first giggled and thought “oh how cute.”

But then I let it sink in. Why not? “The experts” weren’t exactly right on the business name (or at least my interpretation of what they meant) so maybe they were wrong on the .com thing too.

So, I did it. I bought the .com and switched over all of my social media accounts. I was officially Coach Erin at ecoacherin.com.

It’s was awesome! Nobody seemed to care that my business name and my .com didn't match. It also hasn’t had a negative effect on my income or on my ability to provide awesome coaching. (ha)

Yes, I secretly hoped that one day Coach Erin.com would become available. I checked GoDaddy every month for my first 13 years of business just to see if maybe coacherin.com was available.

Finally, in 2020 I reached out to the owner of coacherin.com and decided it was time to purchase it. And as you can see, the owner sold it to me and I now have a .com that matches my business name.

But, I didn't let the perfect business name go by.  Ecoacherin worked and so did coacherin.biz. Two URLs for one business! Wow, another not-so-common solution. Both of these URLs direct to coacherin.com. It's awesome!

I'm so glad I grabbed Coach Erin
the minute it came out of my client’s mouth.

I love being Coach Erin! I love the business name I chose!

It reminds me of the summer hubby and I coached my step-daughter’s softball team and the girls used to call us Coach Steve and Coach Erin.

Are you trying to choose your business name? Are you doing all the research? Are you finding conflicting information, too?

If so, you’re not alone. Do your best to embrace this as part of “the process” because it really is just a piece of the process.

You will choose your perfect business name. It will come, I promise.

It might not describe what you do. It might not match your .com. You might change it a couple of times. It’s OK!

I’m living proof that sometimes you don’t have to follow “the experts.”  Sometimes you can create success by putting one foot in front of the other and making the best decisions you can at the time.

If you’re done going ‘round and ‘round and struggling to choose your business name -- let’s get coaching.

I LOVE helping other women over the hurdle of choosing their business name. I love digging deep and finding words that fit YOU perfectly.

I’ve had many coaching conversations about choosing business names with my clients. It’s actually a really fun coaching topic for me.