Need help with Words!!

"Ark" sounds old-fashioned and conjures up a "sinful" meme.

How about something like "thriving in stormy weather"? (that -- for me -- brings up that old jazz standard :D)

I like the "Ark" word. It, in my opinion, is what saved human kind. You are stating that is what your business is striving to do, "save them from disaster". I like it.

"Sail your business smoothly with Ark" "Smooth sailing with Ark" Peaceful Ark

The dove is the animal that came back with the olive branch to Noah.

You could play with that animal as it always brings to mind positive images of peace, unity and safety.

I agree that "Ark" isn't the way to go. Too many religious overtones.

To me the obvious parallel is insurance as that's exactly why we buy insurance so should convey an easy to digest concept.

"Business Insurance - Preparing for a Rainy Day"

• something along those lines work for me.

Best, Mark.

How about a navigation theme such as "navigating through rough waters". You could even tie it into a lighthouse as a beacon of hope.

How about a play on Bette Davis' words from "All About Eve": "Bumpy ride? Fasten your seatbelts and steer." or "If the ride gets bumpy, you can still steer a straight course." -- or something along those lines.

First of all, Kim: Loved the reference to Bette Davis (She's my 13 yr old daughter's favorite actress...and yes on her 100th b'day, we watched several of her films!)

Viv, I look for phrases that emphasize the strengths of what is being offered that are uplifting and compelling. I think any words that suggest struggle or potential defeat may not generate the interest you are looking to create.

Perhaps the following suggestions might be useful (or at least spark your imagination).

1) Using a nautical theme: "From Shore To Shore; How To Sail A Business" 2) Non-nautical: "Adventures In Business; The Journey Towards Success" Best, Karen

"I need something that can also go on a website or be a name for consulting."

Oh, OK -- I guess you're looking for what I refer to as a "white pages" name -- basically a brand name.

Although my specialty are the "yellow pages" names (e.g. domains like "consulting" or "branding" -- basically what people search for when they want to find a particular type of information / expertise), I do have some suggestions that might be helpful for finding a good "doing business as" (dba) name.

1. keep it short (less than 6 chars is silver, less than 5 is gold :) ) -- note that cc (country code) names have 1 less char after the dot, and there are often many more options available.

2. make the first 2 or 3 characters a unique combination -- although this will not help potential clients much (or clients who use many different computers), it will be useful for those clients you have to type in the name and have the auto-complete function fill in the rest of the name.

3. cold call 10 random people and tell them the name over the phone (say you're 1 free bouquet of flowers if they go to a website and enter the name [whether they enter it correctly or not? ;]) -- if all 10 people get the spelling right off the bat, then it's perfect.

:) nmw

ps: if you come up with a name that you REALLY LIKE, and it's already registered, then maybe look and see if you can buy it. compared to the other (for example legal / trademark) expenses, the expense of the name itself is normally quite low

What's the most important skill or offering you impart to your clients when it comes to this topic? What's your gem? Your life raft idea conjures up certain images, but I have the sense that your most helpful offering is more like an anchor. Surviving the rough patches in a small business is very much about anchoring yourself to what you know and trust, staying centered. That's where I go with it anyway, but what's important is you and the specific gem you offer. Maybe some images or words will come to mind that describe that key offering. The more you can narrow it down, the easier it should be to hit on the perfect phrase.

How about "Prepared for Success", "Prepared with Purpose", "Prepared on Purpose" or "Just in Case"?

Viv Ilo, could you clarify something for me? You say you want to write about "how to keep yourself and your small business afloat through any rough sailing". Are you writing about how to plan and prepare for "rough sailing" or are you writing about how to contend with "rough sailing" when it happens?

thx.

Viv Ilo,

I am so pleased that you've shared your struggle with the rest of us. This is the coolest biz site for authentic responses and non-competitive well-wishers. Don't you think?

My advice:

Don't be afraid to appeal to people's negative experiences. Quite frankly, that's what will catch their eye, relate to their gut, and connect with their immediate experience... especially if they're still "in it." The point is to CONNECT with them, right? No need to be cheery all the time. Quite frankly, I try to avoid people who don't have some kind of edge or "shadow" to them. I say always cheery people in business fear going to hell and indie thrivers have already been there and survived it to tell an empowering story about it.

A few titles that come to mind include:

"Surviving the Deluge" "Learning to Set Sail in Unpredictable Weather" "Negotiating Tricky Tides" "Learning to Float" "Learning to Dive: What to do in Business When the Waves Feel Overwhelming" "Finding your Sea Legs after Economic Tumult"

My favorite of my list is LEARNING TO FLOAT.

If you want to sign up for my self-publishing seminar on April 26th, I'd love to work with you further on turning your experience into a marketable book.

http://www.lifedesignunlimited.citymax.com/page/page/4705152.htm

My favorite indie author is Molly Gordon. Checkout her award-winning book:

http://www.authenticpromotion.com/thebook.html

Viv... So you want to help indies..."prepare for worst case scenarios..."?

I posted an event on this subject once that I called: You don't know, what you don't know. When you do, its too late.

I only had 2 attendees and we had a very good discussion even though we consisted of 2 "old dogs" and 1 fresh new "pup" in the world of small business. I think you have a subject that could be very engaging and informative.

I would love to collaborate with you and/or attend and impart some wisdom in this area. I have a few "major disaster" real life stories that could help inspire small business owners that it IS possible to survive despite...?

So many of us always think that disaster only happens to the "other guy" and that we are invincible.

...Howard

Thanks for the clarification.

Your term, "Resiliency Plan" suits me better than any of the ones such as "Disaster Planning". And "Continuity Planning" is something I have to really stop and think about to grok ... even though once I grok it it is pretty perfect.

Resilience sounds healthy and something worth striving for. Disaster sounds of course like something to avoid--but I am more drawn to the notion of health than to avoiding something (if that makes any sense).

Good luck with this. There've been several conversations in Biz Talk about this kind of thing; it's so important but such a low priority.

Hmmm. Have you examined how groups such as the Red Cross talk about disaster planning?

I LOVE Brainstorming!

My immediate thought was - Planning and being prepared for the "What-Ifs". I also have thought of possible ways to incorporate preventive medicine terminology, that came to mind. Health, Well being, security.

In a business plan that I am working on, we have the SWOT section: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Brainstorming about this is great and you as a business owner know what's apt to come down the pike.

I would definitely choose words that are not negative - scaring people only works to your disadvantage I think.

Now I have buoyant, durable, stout, haven, refuge - keep us posted.

I understand why marketing this might be challenging. Christian's reference to preventive medicine terminology is interesting. I have written enough for the healthcare industry to know that "preventive" just does not sell. People want to cure what they have, not prevent what they don't have. If you are overweight, you see the value of a product that will shed those pounds because, well, you're feeling the pain of it right now. But a pill to prevent osteoporosis, or an herb to keep your heart healthy? Not so much.

It is similar to financial products. We know we need to plan for retirement but the impact of not doing so isn't affecting us at this very moment, right?

Your task, I think, is to find that single core emotion (and who knows, fear just might be it) and write to your absolute, prime core prospect. Maybe you and Howard should get together and brainstorm!

Hi Viv,

I think if you are trying to coin a new word, then you are taking on a large battle. Granted, you're not saying you want to coin a new word, but rather asking whether X is an "up and coming word".

For the sake of argument, let's pretend that "solopreneurs" is such an "up and coming" new word.

1. Do you expect someone to go to their computer and say "I want to find out all there is to know about solopreneurs" or maybe "where can I find a solopreneur?"

2. If yes, then perhaps the name might be good for your expectations; but I actually doubt it -- I expect that less than a handful will type in that term in a year (note that I also acknowledge that very few would type in "disaster planning" -- simply because they're human and would rather plan for "success")

3. I think you need to look at this issue as a process with at least 2 steps:

3.1. search = "where can I find a list of X?"

3.2. selection = "now that I have a list of X, which one should I contact first?"

Domain names for 3.1 (e.g. cars.com, hotels.com, pizza.com, etc.) are exorbitantly expensive. In contrast, domain names for 3.2 might be freely available to register.

I wrote an article about these "general" issues yesterday, and I don't want to get off the topic of which name would be right in your case here. The general article is at "the difference between a brand name and a domain name".

It's not so important how often a word is written -- what's more important from the point of view of being found is which words are being searched (step 1 of the 2 steps).

Then, when you are on the list of "results" for that keyword, it's important to motivate people to click.

Of course that's all IMHO.

BTW: I happen to know a NO survivor who's very big on the "resiliency planning" concept (note, however, that if you keep talking about it long enough, there may actually be someone who might just snatch up a domain from right under your nose! ;)

Viv... I think solopreneur is a neat word. I use it all the time. Sometime I'll share an interesting story about it with you.

Check this out. If you miss-type the url like this, see what you get. http://www.solopreneuer.com

...Howard

LOL!! :D

Okay, I will chime in here. First off, Viv, I don't mean to keep on this subject, but... Judy and I had heard the word solopreneur, did some research on it and saw it as a "possible" up and coming new term. But we decided to use it because it said exactly who our client is.

And I do agree with Howard, it's a neat word. And like him, we use it a lot and are branding ourselves using that term.

The most interesting point here is how this conversation has gone, how the word solopreneur has played into it and how several of you began talking about it in this post. Isn't that what viral marketing is all about?