You have spent hours, days, months researching and developing your business name. You register it and launch your brand into the world. You have that moment of pride and you get excited about the journey ahead.
But is that enough?
Unfortunately, there are some lovely people who like to check new company filings and are poised to pounce and buy your domain name before you do. Then, sell back to you for an inflated price.
So, before you register your company name (after checking that is available):
1. Check the domain is available (.com is preferable)
2. Make sure your brand name is available on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc.
If these are available, snap up your social media channels first, as these are free. Then register your domain name, which can be for as little as £1.99, if you have the budget, also consider variations on the domain. Then register your company name.
The reason behind owning and controlling your name is so that no one else can claim to be your business. You may not have the time later in your business journey, to firefight malicious messaging from other sources using your business name.
There is a temptation to think 'well I don't do Facebook, so I don't need an account'. You may not use it, but do you want someone else to pretend to be your business?
Therefore, even if there are channels which you feel you do not need, still own your handle name. Even if think you don't need Twitter, you can have a pinned post to ask people to follow you on your channel of preference. If you happen to get followers on a channel you were not expecting, it may introduce you to customers you never thought you could reach.
At the start of any marketing strategy, you will be surprised what will resonate with customers. You do not want to put your life and soul into creating a business and then have a troll take over a channel and damage all your hard work. For the sack of a few minutes, set up your accounts in order to protect your brand from the start.
Final thought
You might be tempted to take your chances and come up with some workarounds with cleaver spellings. However, consider how it looks to have too many spelling variations across platforms of your company name. Branding can become confused and come across as disorganised to consumers. Also, making it harder for them to find you with the correct spelling!
