It’s only a 4 letter word

When Jeoff & I were setting up The Squared Group, group was an obvious part of the name as we wanted a name that would act as an umbrella for a number of operational companies. First thing to check. Was this name available at Companies House, the UK body that holds information on all registered companies in England, Scotland and Wales?

Companies House have quite a task actually, as there are over 2m companies registered in Great Britain and over 300000 new registrations each year. And that doesn’t include people in business as sole traders, partnerships and unofficially. These statistics alone show what an active, entrepreneural economy the UK is. Unfortunately, the government often seems to want to handicap that desire to achieve – but that’s another story, don’t get me started!

And unfortunately, Companies House didn’t think we were a group.

We needed to ‘prove’ we were a group which for a non-operational start-up was not going to be easy. Companies House will only approve ‘group’ names if there is evidence of a parent/ subsidiary realtionship. In the end they accepted the choice of name because we had registered a number of domain names, all with the ’squared’ element involved and all registered to The Squared Group Limited as owner of the names.

Interestingly, in Great Britain there are a number of protected or sensitive words when it comes to naming a company. You cannot just call yourself Royal for instance – our Queen will have a say in this one. Nor can you suggest a national or international size of operation without supporting evidence. Use of the words British or European would not just go through on the nod. And if you want to call yourself The Sheffield XXX, Companies House may consult with the Company of Cutlers of Hallamshire.

So here’s the interval…sorry no ice-creams or popcorn.

The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was incorporated in 1624 by an Act of Parliament. The local cutlery industry in Sheffield was though already over three centuries old. The Act of Incorporation gave the Company jurisdiction over:

‘…all persons using to make Knives, Blades, Scissers, Sheeres, Sickles, Cutlery wares and all other wares and manufacture made or wrought of yron and steele, dwelling or inhabiting within the said Lordship and Liberty of Hallamshire, or within six miles compasse of the same….’

For almost four hundred years, the Company has maintained the standing of Sheffield’s metal-related industries, both at home and abroad.

But now back to the main event.

More difficult than convincing the authorities to let us be a Group was finding a name that could be carried through to the subsidiaries when they were eventually set up and that in all cases were available as web names. And that were available as .com as well as .co.uk?

Even back in 2002 we had realised that as use of the internet for commercial purposes grew, as it undoubtedly would, for us to be taken seriously as a global player .com was more important than .co.uk How many people outside of the UK would think to use .co.uk rather than .com

.com is a global currency just like the $.

And so we ended up with The Squared Group with subsidiaries such as Shop Squared and Travel Squared all with .com and .co.uk

We did though get the choice of names wrong for a while. Shop Squared started as Retail Squared – retail may be what it was about but it wasn’t catchy. It took a while to learn that lesson.

My recommendation – choose names that are straightforward but broad enough to allow for diversity in what you do. For any start-up choosing a name is actually one of the hardest things to do. And probably because of this too little attention is given to it. It’s far easier & quicker to use the first name that crops up. Unfortunately, the consequences even just a year down the line can be dramatic. Eventually you’ll wake-up to how awful your first choice business name sounds. Probably after your customers have squirmed once too often or the uncomfortable faces at your local business breakfast meeting have become all too obvious.

And when that happens you’re either going to have to grin and bear it for years to come or do something about it. New stationery, business cards, domain names + explaining why your old name was so bad.

So spend a bit of time getting it right at the start.

• Legally can you use it?
• Are the domain names available?
• Does it look right on your stationery?
• Will you cringe when you hear the phone being answered with your choice of name?
• Is it too limiting in terms of where you intend to operate and with the range of products/ services that you eventually expect to introduce?
• Are there any cultural or language implications?
• Will it reflect the brand values that are dear to you, adequately?

Whilst, The Bard may have been a great writer, a rose by any other name isn’t always as sweet.

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