Having trouble deciding on a name for your fitness business? Start here.
Before you begin crafting your perfect logo, you need to decide on a business name. Your business’s name is one of the first impressions your target market will have with your company, so it’s important to be strategic when choosing your name. Especially in the saturated industry of fitness and wellness businesses, a good name goes a long way. The best names are straightforward, memorable, and give you room to grow and scale without being boxed in. Most importantly, your business name should speak to you, this is your business baby.
Here are 4 easy steps to honing in on your perfect wellness business name:
1. Start with your business goals.
Look 5 years, even 10, in the future. Where do you see your company? Are you happiest being front and center as the face of your business? Or would you love to build a team and remove yourself from the forefront of your marketing efforts? Answering these questions will help you decide if you need to name your business after yourself.
Naming your business after yourself is a great idea if you already have an online presence built and you are the primary person your clients will be interacting with when they work with you. Not only will any press or buzz you generate be funneled straight into your business, but you grow brand recognition easily as you are a person people connect with vs. a business.
Although a personal brand is a great move for many fitness coaches in the industry due to social media popularity and recognition, it may not always be the move for you. If you’d love to scale your business to sell or run on it’s own, you’re better off choosing another name that’s not yours. Or, if you have other plans for your personal brand and don’t want to box your name into primarily welless coaching, you may want to choose a different name.
The last thing you want to consider is who will your target market be most comfortable hiring? Do your dream clients love working one on one with you? Or are they looking for a team, an agency, or a larger brand to partner with?
2. Evaluate your voice and values.
Your brand voice and personality play a huge roll in your branding. If you’re not using your name, take these into consideration while you craft your fitness company’s business name. Are you strong and serious? What about playful and approachable?
In an article from Buffer, Julia Cummings writes:
“Imagine a business that sells luxury dress shoes with similar branding to Indochino — sophisticated, yet accessible. You find out it’s called Silly Shoes. Doesn’t feel so posh now, right? Even worse, potential shoppers won’t immediately understand whether they’ll find elegant dress shoes or shoes for children.”
Keeping word association and brand personality in mind when naming your company will ensure you send the correct message to your ideal clients right out of the gate.
3. Embrace the strange.
The easiest way to get lost in the noise of the fitness and wellness industry is by using a generic name. The confusing truth is that if you follow all the rules from business naming experts: “one syllable”, “you must include a y or an x”, “make it easy to pronounce”, you might easily get lost in the crowd.
In a Fast Company article on using strangeness as a tactic for business naming, Dave writes,
“You see, we’re hardwired to notice what’s different. In the 1930s, German psychiatrist Hedwig von Restorff found evidence that things that stand out attract more attention and are more memorable. And isn’t that exactly what you want from a brand name?
Apply the von Restorff effect to branding and you begin to see how, for example, Monzo became the U.K.’s most recommended brand in 2019 thanks in huge part to its standout neon coral bank card. Or conversely how all the startups with short human names (Oscar, Eve, Albert, Emma, Marcus, Bennie, Lola, Clara, Casper, Dave, etc.) seem to blur into one.”
4. Look at the legal.
The perfect, strange, golden business name is useless if it’s already trademarked by a competitor.
Before you go too far and get your heart broken, do a quick search to see if your dream name legally belongs to someone else. Do a search on Trademark Data Base here.
Next, check out domain availability. We recommend purchasing your domain on Google Domains – we’ve found this to be the easiest place to keep your domains, point them at your website, and add on a custom email address easily.
Domain name already taken? You may not need to change your name if the trademark is available. Check out our guide for what to do if your domain name is already taken here.
Now that you have your checklist, it’s time to brainstorm!
We have a guide that helps you go from square one of writing your mission statement all the way to branding your entire fitness business that you’ll definitely want to grab. Oh, and it’s totally free. Download our free DIY Brand Guide here and start branding!
