Examples of creatively spelled names that sound like a real word include:

# Acxiom

# Cinergy Health Chempetitive

# Enalasys

# Engauge

# Flikr

# Genesys

However, the perils of this strategy are many. First, sometimes not everyone understands the original word, as with “axiom” and “synergy.” In that case, the intended implication of the company name gets even more lost with the creative spelling.

Second, many of the creative spellings are extremely hard to remember accurately. I’m quite sure I could never remember how to spell Enalasys, even if I remembered that it sounded like “analysis” and started with an “E.” There are two additional spelling changes in that eight-letter name. Note that on the Internet, someone who gets your company’s spelling only partially right will not find your web site and may not be able to get email through to your employees.

Third, these names can be difficult to pronounce when seeing them “cold.” This point gets overlooked because a popular site like Flikr has many people talking about it, and once you’ve heard there’s a photo-sharing site called “flicker,” you readily understand that that’s how the name is said. But just from looking at the name, you might equally want to pronounce it as “Fly-ker” – or just be struck silent at the unfamiliar sequence of “k-r” at the end of the name. Likewise, I’m not sure from the spelling whether “Genesys” is supposed to be pronounced like the English word “genesis” or like the separate parts – “Jean-sis” (which emphasizes the component word “gene”).

Fourth, creatively spelled names with a double meaning like Chempetitive (sounds like “competitive” but suggests chemicals) or Engauge (sounds like “engage” but suggests measurement as in “gauge”) do not easily pass the telephone test. Their significance doesn’t come across to the ear. That is, someone hearing “Competitive” wouldn’t suspect the connection to chemicals – or the correct spelling.

And fifth, when you have a creatively spelled name, it becomes tiresome to spell it out every single time you say it to a new vendor or potential client. Take it from someone blessed with the last name of Yudkin!

If you’re a visual person, thinking mainly of how a company name might look on signage and a logo, you might value these names highly because of their distinctive eye appeal. However, it would be a mistake to forget about all the business situations in which communication happens primarily by ear.

With a sizeable marketing budget, you can overcome these disadvantages to a certain extent, drilling the correct spelling and punctuation into the minds of the public. After all, most people got it that AT&T’s wireless company was pronounced “singular” but spelled with a “C.” But if you have a limited marketing budget, it’s best to select a new company name that can be understood right off correctly by both the eye and the ear.

About The Author:

Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of “19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line” at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

A few people decided to opt out of the jump after the presentation. They allowed fear to drive their decision. I was scared, but decided to jump having faith that my parachute was packed correctly and I would make it to the ground safely.

The experience was exhilarating and those who stayed on the ground wanted to know how it was. I found it difficult to describe the rollercoaster of emotion that wound through me on the plane ride up, while standing at the end of the plane with my toes over the edge, the jumping, the free falling, the yank back up when the air caught the parachute and then the peaceful and relaxed floating.

But even harder to describe was the leap I made inside myself about being able to do anything. By making a faith-based decision, I allowed myself to grow from experience.

Those who made the fear-based decision felt nothing but fear.

Being a new business owner is a lot like skydiving in the sense that you are taking calculated risks daily that run you through a flurry of emotions before landing on the ground or getting to the outcome. Resilience is needed to weather these frequent storms.
Unfortunately, I am currently seeing a lot more fear-based decision making with some of my clients and other small business owners.

It seems that economic conditions and money worries have prompted some business owners to forget their vision, release their commitment to success and make decisions to cut resources, scale back on assistance and abandon marketing campaigns.

In their minds, they are making these decisions to help the business. In reality, these fear-based decisions will keep their businesses and them from growing. This happens when a business owner makes decisions based on fear: they isolate themselves, close themselves off to opportunities and energetically “give-up” doing what is necessary to succeed. Many of them justify firing their support staff including assistants, bookkeepers and coaches—the very resources that are supporting the business growth and making it possible for them to focus on their core brilliance.

When a small business owner removes their support systems they put themselves in a backwards position which is exactly the opposite of where you need to be to make progress.

The biggest reason small business owners sabotage themselves this way is because it’s uncomfortable to operate in faith. It’s scary to trust in yourself. It feels hard to have to make it happen yourself. However, if you really want to be a small business owner for the long haul, you must be able to feel the fear and act anyway. Those who aren’t resilient and make faith-based decisions fade away within the first year or two of business by tucking in their head and sending out resumes to get back into corporate.

In contrast, I have witnessed several of my clients, some who also had money concerns make faith-based decisions, choosing to invest in themselves and their businesses trusting the outcome will serve them and it’s not always the way they thought it would be, but in every case good resulted.

Faith is an essential characteristic for success when you own your own business. You can’t always see around the corner or know how sales will go the next month or the next, but having faith will put you in a place of being willing to receive, open to opportunities and on a path of commitment to doing everything you can and must do to make your business a success.

Growth comes from having faith. Do you have it?

© 2009, Leah Grant Enterprises LLC.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEB SITE?  You may, as long as you include this entire blurb with it: New Business Mentor Leah Grant publishes Startup Success, a weekly enewsletter.  If you’re thinking about starting a new business or are in the early phases of entrepreneurship, get your FR.EE New Business Startup Kit including the Secrets of Successful Business Owners audio at http://www.leahgrant.com