Sorry. RootCanal.com is taken.

You face so many challenges when starting your own business. What is my value proposition? What are my differentiating qualities? What is my product or service portfolio worth on the market? And, not unimportantly, what the hell will I call this thing?

I am wrestling with these questions, and more, as I tackle the challenge of launching my own small business. I find it interesting that the questions that are more substantive are actually easier to answer. My value proposition? Delivering high quality, bottom line growth solutions for executives, leadership teams, and groups needing development. Differentiating qualities? Everyone in my space has some level of skill. That’s the price of entry. Above and beyond? I bring authenticity, honesty, relationship capability, an intuitive radar that gets at the real issues, and true love for the work. Value on the market? Let’s talk. What the hell to call this business? Well then.

There’s a group that believes that eponymous is the way to go. That’s fine if your name is Prior or Buckley or Arnzen. All spellable and not prone to mispronunciation. I have spent my entire career teaching people to spell and pronounce my last name correctly (Persson is pronounced with a long E. There’s no A involved. Yup. That’s the deal). Using this name in my business invites more misspellings and mispronunciations, and you can imagine what it will do to my SEO numbers.

There’s another group that opts for the metaphor that symbolizes the essence of the work. Not a bad idea. The essence of my work is transformational change: for individuals, teams, and organizations. What metaphors come to mind? I started with Alchemy. Found several chemical manufacturing plants of that name. Dead end. A brilliant creative friend suggested I play with the concept of Trifecta: three focus areas (individuals, teams, organizations), and I loved that idea till I looked up the urban dictionary definition. Dead end. Went through images of trees, waterways, ski trails (WhiteHeat.com is still available), and found nothing that created immediate understanding.

My husband is incredibly supportive, and has been a great thought partner. A couple of weeks ago, we were out for dinner (perhaps a few glasses into a nice bottle of Cabernet) and brainstorming ideas. Every idea he threw out met with unwelcome responses from me: frowns, grimaces, eye rolls. This led to one of us observing that naming a small business was like having a root canal. Hey!!! There’s an idea! I googled it and got my answer: Sorry. RootCanal.com is taken.

This led me to the logic of the third camp that says: don’t over-complicate this. Just name the business for what it does. Call it what it is. When I read the name, I understand the business. This got me back to an early idea: Leadership Growth Solutions. And that’s where I landed. Clear. Simple. Describes what I do. Three words that are understandable, easy to spell, and tough to mispronounce. They tell the story. What more could I want?

What more could I want? I want your feedback.  Leadership Growth Solutions. What do you think?