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A guide to naming your business

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A guide to naming your business

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Creating a business name

Starting a business is an exciting adventure, and part of that adventure is deciding on a business name. If you plan to work as a sole trader, your business name could be as simple as your name or initials. However, just because you are working for yourself doesn’t mean you need to stick to a traditional approach. Take some time to think about what appeals to you and is relevant to your line of work. Also, take into consideration that your business name needs to be easy to read, spell, and say.

Tips and ideas for naming your business

  • Be original – your business name could have a lot of competition out there if it is like other established businesses. Potential clients that are searching for your business may find competitors instead, or even worse, find something you do not want associated with your business. 
  • Be catchy – your business name is the first connection your potential clients make with your business. You want them to understand what your business does and what your values are. A great business name teamed with a well thought out mission statement can communicate this easily.
  • Future proof – although it’s tempting to name your business after yourself, this could limit any future potential expansion if you end up taking on partners/external investment or selling your business.
  • Get help – if you are struggling with a name, you can use name generator tools for inspiration. Check out this name generator link to get you started – https://businessnamegenerator.com/
  • Check for originality – once you have decided on your name and logo, search for it via the tools we have listed below to ensure originality and availability. Finally, do lots of internet searching with your name and slight variations to make sure it is unique. 

When people use your brand as a verb, that is remarkable.

Meg Whitman

Tools that you can use to check your business name and logo availability

Onecheck at business.govt.nz can be used to check if your: 

  • Business name is available.
  • Business logo is trademarked.
  • Business name web domains are available.
  • Social media business usernames are available.

https://www.business.govt.nz/onecheck/

You can check if your business word/slogan/logo/image has already been trademarked at https://www.iponz.govt.nz/  

You can also copy and paste your business logo/image into Google search to check if other businesses/products are using similar logos. 

Registering your business

Before you start your business, you need to decide what business structure you want to use. Will you structure your business

  • So you can work as a sole trader?
  • To operate as a limited liability company?
  • To operate as a partnership with others? 

If you are not sure about the best business structure to use, check out the freemeup blog “Do I need to start a company”. 

If you want to incorporate a company to run your business, check that the business name is available first. The Companies Office will not let you create a company using a business name that is already taken. 

If you want to work as a sole trader, you do not need to set up a company. However, you can obtain a New Zealand Business Number. 

When you apply for an NZBN your business becomes part of a single searchable register of all Kiwi businesses. The register contains your primary business data such as your trading name, phone number, and email address.  

This means:  

✅ Anyone who does business with you (your clients, service providers, or government agencies) can easily access the details they need to work with you.  

✅ Your business appears more credible, and clients can be sure they are dealing with you (and not some other similarly named business down the road).   

✅ Over time, your details will be shared with government agencies and other businesses, so you only need to update your details in one place. 

If you want to apply for a NZBN as a sole trader, your legal business name is your name; however, you can also list a trading name. To avoid confusion and possible legal consequences of trading using the same name as another business, take some time to check that your trading name is available and original.

Where do I start?

First, you will need a RealMe login. You will need a RealMe account to either create a new company for your business or obtain an NZBN number to work as a sole trader. Follow this link to create one:

https://www.realme.govt.nz/

To create a new company, go to the Companies Office website and follow the instructions provided. 

https://companies-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/

 

To obtain a NZBN number for your business when operating as a sole trader, go to the nzbn.govt.nz website and follow the instructions provided. 

https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/get-an-nzbn/self-employed-or-sole-trader/

To trademark your business logo/image, go to the iponz.govt.nz website and follow the instructions provided. 

Trade marks | Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand

What about GST?

If you want to create a company to operate your business, you can register for GST via the Companies Office as part of incorporating your company. If your business is going to earn more than $60,000 per annum, your company must be GST registered. 

Similarly, if you want to work as a sole trader and think you will earn more than $60,000, you will have to be GST registered. When working as a sole trader, you register yourself (using your personal IRD number) for GST. 

As a sole trader, you can register for GST online using myIR, but you will need a myIR web logon to do so.  

You can create a myIR web logon using your personal IRD number via the ird.govt.nz website. Navigate to myIR login by clicking on the “myIR login” button located top right-hand corner. Then click on the “Not yet registered for myIR” link to create a new account.

If you want more information about GST requirements and how to register, this quick “How to Register for GST” guide provided by Hnry is helpful.

Advertising my business

Freemeup has partnered with Watersorted – an online marketplace for professionals working in the water industry, where you can list your business and sell your services. Anyone who signs up for a freemeup service can have help registering and creating their shop, all for free! Check out https://www.watersorted.com/ if you want to find out more about this awesome marketplace.

Disclaimer: All content provided on freemeup.nz is for informational purposes only and is intended as a general information resource regarding the matters covered. It is not tailored to cover specific situations and circumstances and shouldn’t be taken as direct professional advice. Freemeup makes no representations to the accuracy or completeness of the information found on this site or found by following any links on this site and will not be held liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the use of this information. 

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Harness the power of social media

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Harness the power of social media

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Using the power of social media

Last month I posted the blog “Essential steps to market yourself and secure clients” and discussed how to create customer personas to help identify your services and get clients to use them. 

In this blog, I discuss how to harness the power of social media. How to grow your network and engage with your connections, create useful content, and promote yourself. Attracting potential clients via social media can happen when you establish yourself as a trusted advisor, and your connections validate your work and recognise you as an expert in your field. 

Why use social media?

❓Do you spend time on social media, connect with others, and follow their posts❓

❓Do you interact with your connections and share their posts or comment on them❓

 

For those thinking about setting up their own business, to those already working for themselves, you might think you don’t need to spend time engaging with others on social media platforms.

If you are considering working as a sole trader, your focus may be figuring out what your service offerings will look like, and who you can contact to see if there is a market for them. For those already freelancing, you probably have a reliable list of existing and potential clients you can call or email to drum up work and are not concerned with expanding your network and promoting your brand. 

However, social media provides a source of connections that can help introduce you to a larger client base. If you already have social media accounts such as LinkedIn, you will probably have a list of connections who would interact with you. These interactions can validate and promote your services, exposing you to more potential clients. 

The hard part? Putting yourself out there to be seen by any who read your posts, shared content, and comments. 

It’s not who you know in social media. It’s how well you maintain and strengthen your relationships.

Stuart Davidson

Start by cultivating content you like

Increasing your confidence using social media is a good starting point. You may not enjoy posting articles and news about yourself. Similarly, commenting on other users’ posts may make you uncomfortable, especially if you don’t know the person well. So, start small. Spend a few minutes every day reviewing content on the platforms you use. Support the content you want to see more of by liking, loving, and celebrating the posts you enjoy reading. Your algorithms will pick up the type of content you like when you start indicating what you prefer. 

Once you configure the content you want to see on your feed, you can grow your network. The algorithms will start to suggest other connections with similar interests or who post content you enjoy reading. 

Now you are engaging your connections, supporting their content, and starting to expand your network. 

Think about creating your own content

Now you have cultivated the type of content you like to see and are growing your network, you can start promoting your brand. If you are considering starting your own business, brainstorm what services you can offer. Describe your skills and experience; you could post content about projects you have been involved in (with the relevant written permissions; ask for a review of the content so you are sharing information you are allowed to). You can also provide information about how to help others. Identify simple, common problems potential clients may have, and how they can solve them. This develops trust in your brand and identifies you as a potential advisor. 

If you have started your own business and have a client base, you could post content about how your services have helped your clients (with the relevant written permissions; ask for a review of the content so you are sharing information you are allowed to). You can also join discussions relevant to your industry and areas of expertise. Even simply commenting on other posts can help promote you and your brand and increase traffic to your profile. Over time your profile will grow, and other connections will promote your content and verify you as someone who is an expert in their field. 

If possible, create one detailed post or article a week. Tell your story, explain why you work for yourself, and what you are giving back to the industry. What do you love about your work and what challenges have you overcome? 

Find your community

Once you start posting content and engaging with other connections on your social media platforms, you will develop your community. These will be connections who read your posts, comment on your news, and share your content. Your community may be made up of similar professionals and industry connections. You should also have a good following of existing clients who can verify the work you have done and promote your posts. Once you have enough followers, you could consider posting newsletters if you have lots of information you want to share regularly. Cultivating your audience and providing useful and engaging content results in a positive feedback loop that grows your brand. 

Tip – post your milestones and achievements. Sometimes we don’t feel comfortable tooting our own trumpet, but doing so continues to reinforce brand excellence. 

Remember to return and share the love. Advocate and support your network – like, love, celebrate, and share their news and achievements. Also, post thanks to those who have supported you.

TLDR;

  1. Dedicate 5 minutes a day to finding and supporting content you like on your social media platforms. 
  2. Identify professionals you can connect with and send a request – grow your network. 
  3. Create content – describe your services and provide useful content that solves problems. 
  4. Tell your story – explain why you love your work and what challenges you face. Post once a week. 
  5. Get involved in discussions and comment on other posts. 
  6. Cultivate your community – support and advocate your network! 

How can freemeup help?

Freemeup has partnered with Watersorted – an online marketplace for professionals working in the water industry, where you can list your business and sell your services. We can help you register and set up a shop, all for free! Check out https://www.watersorted.com/ if you want to find out more about this awesome marketplace. 

We also love sharing your good news! We would love to repost any LinkedIn posts, articles, etc. that you create and let others know who you are and what you do.

Disclaimer: All content provided on freemeup.nz is for informational purposes only and is intended as a general information resource regarding the matters covered. It is not tailored to cover specific situations and circumstances and shouldn’t be taken as direct professional advice. Freemeup makes no representations to the accuracy or completeness of the information found on this site or found by following any links on this site and will not be held liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the use of this information. 

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Key steps to market yourself and secure clients

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Key steps to market yourself and secure clients

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Where do I start?

In April, I wrote the freemeup blog – Overcoming the fear of change. This blog explored some reasons that stop us from leaping into the unknown, and how to overcome that fear using deliberate experimentation.

Here, I discuss how you can take the next step by identifying your potential clients and determine how best to connect with them. Understanding your potential clients can help you: 

  1. Understand what services your clients need and how you can provide them. 
  2. Identify the decision makers of an organisation, how best to communicate with them, and get them signed up.

Marketing is all about me, right?

Not necessarily. A good first step towards marketing yourself is to identify your potential clients. Buyer Personas can help you think about who they are and how they think. By creating buyer personas, you can start answering questions about your potential clients, such as: 

  1. Why will this person be my client – will I be providing services they can use? 
  2. Why will this person use my services – what differentiates my services from others?
  3. What are this person’s goals and how are they measured – will I help them meet their targets?
  4. What are this person’s pain points – do my services solve their problems? 
  5. What is this person’s role – what are their responsibilities, and can they engage me directly? 
  6. How does this person like to communicate – do they regularly post/comment/like on social media, or do they prefer to communicate via email/phone/in person? Do they go to conferences?

To create your buyer personas, you will need to do some research first to find out about your target audience. This may require asking potential clients for information to collect the data you need to complete your personas. 

A great resource provided by myNZTE provides a PDF template to create buyer personas and also provides ideas about what to ask potential clients.

FYI – if you are currently employed review your IEA to check for non-compete clauses in your contract as this may limit your list of potential clients. 

Personal Branding is all about your unique promise of value and what you bring to the table. It’s (also) about getting your potential clients to choose you as the only solution to their problem.

Dr Sarah David

Clarify your services

Now you have a good understanding of what your potential clients need, you can solidify your service offerings. Spend time defining: 

  1. Who are my clients? 
  2. What are their problems?
  3. What are my solutions? 
  4. Why are my services needed now?
  5. How are my services different?

Keep your answers short, clear, relevant and differentiated. Clearly state the credible benefits of your services. 

How do I market myself?

Once you have a good understanding of what your clients want and how you can meet that need, think about how you want to advertise the services you are offering and how you will promote yourself. 

Identifying how best to reach out to your buyers helps you navigate the next step of your marketing journey – organising your comms. You may want to think about branding yourself on social media sites such as LinkedIn. This Hnry guide is a great starting place to grow your brand on LinkedIn:

Grow your freelance work by posting regularly on LinkedIn

For a more in-depth approach, they have also written a great article on personal branding for those who want to use multiple branding resources:

The freelancer’s guide to personal branding

Pick up the phone

However, promoting yourself on LinkedIn might not give you the final boost you need to secure those contracts. Get in touch with potential clients and discuss how your services can help them meet their needs.

To do this, you might splash out on a road trip and line up meetings with several potential clients over a few days. You can also use industry events like conferences to schedule meetings. If your budget doesn’t allow for these options, then connecting via email with a follow-up phone call is also effective.

Reaching out to clients to ask for work is a much better way of securing work than waiting for the work to come to you via social media alone. 

Get a signed contract

To get the best chance of converting those potential clients into signed contracts, here are a few final tips: 

  1. Don’t make leads wait – the level of interest shown by a potential client can decline rapidly if you do not show interest and respond. 
  2. Don’t drop a lead if they don’t convert the first time – keep going back to them, keep offering them your services. You may not have what they want the first time around, but constant improvements to your business could result in the service they want. 
  3. Ask for the contract – your potential lead has asked all the right questions and seems genuinely interested, but they still didn’t commit. Did you follow up by providing quotes or a contract? Did you explain the process to complete the engagement? 
  4. Spend time maintaining your brand – keep posting about your services, writing articles, and highlighting your areas of expertise and knowledge. If clients can see you are available and you have the services they want, they will use you. 
  5. If you have a business website, keep it updated, easy to understand, and simple to use. Make it easy to find out what services you are offering and how to contact you. 
  6. Obtain social proof and develop trust – obtain reviews from existing clients. Potential clients love to review a business/service before they engage. Post statements from clients (with their permission) or ask them to provide references. 
  7. Continuously research your market – what might be viable one year, may not be relevant the next. Continue having conversations with your existing clients and keep up with their needs. 
megaphone with flowers in hand

How can we help?

Freemeup has partnered with Watersorted – an online marketplace for professionals working in the water industry, where you can list your business and sell your services. We can help you register and set up a shop, all for free! Check out https://www.watersorted.com/ if you want to find out more about this awesome marketplace. 

We also love sharing your good news! We would love to repost any LinkedIn posts, articles, etc. that you create and let others know who you are and what you do.

Disclaimer: All content provided on freemeup.nz is for informational purposes only and is intended as a general information resource regarding the matters covered. It is not tailored to cover specific situations and circumstances and shouldn’t be taken as direct professional advice. Freemeup makes no representations to the accuracy or completeness of the information found on this site or found by following any links on this site and will not be held liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the use of this information. 

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Finding work – the elephant in the room

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Finding work - the elephant in the room

Your Pipeline

I think it’s time we addressed the elephant in the room. One of the scariest things about working for yourself is ensuring you have enough work. We’ve all got bills to pay and perhaps families to look after. Freemeup does a lot of things to make it easier for you to work as a sole trader. However, there is no escaping the fact that you need to develop your own client relationships and job pipeline.

Maybe this is old hat for those of you who are already comfortable getting work for your company’s pipeline. If so, please feel free to scroll on. But for those of us who haven’t had a major business development role (and I’d challenge you to consider that all roles involve some degree of BD) then the first thing that comes to mind is the terror of cold-calling someone to ask for work.

For me, my first contract came by finally getting up the courage to ring someone I already had a relationship with and just asking if there was anything I could help with. It was (and still is) a great start but once it was established, I really needed to turn my mind to how I was going to sustain and build on it. I needed to think about marketing buzzwords like brand, service offering, and point of difference.

You are your brand

At the moment, I am partway through and enjoying “I Am My Brand” by Kubi Springer. Kubi Springer is a branding expert who has worked with huge brands like P.Diddy, Rio Ferdinand, Justin Timberlake, and Mariah Carey. Developing your brand is especially relevant to sole traders where the product is you.

According to Kubi Springer a brand is “an emotional connection with your target audience”. In other words, what do you want people to feel when they think of you or engage your services? The book includes lots of exercises that get you to think about this and other questions such as

  • What problem are you trying to solve?
  • Is it needed?
  • Where is the evidence that you are the one to solve the problem?

All of this deep thinking also opens up other questions like what abilities, interests, and values do you have? What kind of work do you want to do? Who do you want to work for and with? And what would success look like for you?

The idea is that once you are clear on all these things you can focus your efforts in the right places.

Another person I follow on LinkedIn is Alicia McKay who is on a mission (like us) to empower people to take charge of their careers and life. Alicia posts lots of content like this LinkedIn post which asks similar questions for you to get clear on the value you are offering.

“an effective personal brand is an authentic expression of the individual and a personification of who they really are"

Kubi Springer

Get started

So, there is loads of advice out there. You could read a book or blog posts, go on a course, or engage someone to help you. If you are struggling to know where to start, you could pick up the phone and talk to someone you trust and ask them for advice.

I think the hardest part sometimes is just thinking about starting. 

Start small, with the relationships you have, put yourself out there, and see where it leads. The NZ market is desperate for good, experienced professionals, so what could you achieve by putting yourself out there? You could be doing the work you love with people you enjoy working with. You could be earning more while having more time for yourself.

Disclaimer: All content provided on freemeup.nz is for informational purposes only and is intended as a general information resource regarding the matters covered. It is not tailored to cover specific situations and circumstances and shouldn’t be taken as direct professional advice. Freemeup makes no representations to the accuracy or completeness of the information found on this site or found by following any links on this site and will not be held liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the use of this information. 

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