When you’re a beginning runner, one of the things you do wrong is you start out running too fast. It always happens. Without fail, it’s the single mistake every new runner makes. They’re just so excited to get going!
I had the same problem when I started my business, and that especially showed in the naming of my business.
When I started off, I thought, “I’m a very relational kind of guy. I want to facilitate relationship building.” So I called it Relational Resourcing.
Then six months later, I wanted to do a message on confidence. I’m a confident guy! I like confidence! So all of a sudden—with the help of my younger brother who’s in IT—I had a website, confident.me.
Another six months and I decided that wasn’t doing too well. I’m in leadership development doing training, workshops, and keynote speaking. Others in that space just use their name. So I’ll just call use my name, Greg Hawks. People know my name and it’s a great brand!
So we did that for another six months. Then I finally came up with a name that I like and use to this day, Hawks Agency.
I had started running too fast with my business’s name, but now I feel like I’ve found my identity with the idea of Hawks Agency. There are three reasons I like our current name.
First, my last name is Hawks, and I have two children. The last thing my children would want to say is, “I work for Greg Hawks.” Now if either of them want to work with me in the future, the name works a lot better.
Second, my logo says HA. Every time I give my business card to someone, I snicker! I think it’s funny that I have my own business, people pay me to talk to them, and my logo says HA. I think that’s humorous and it gives me great delight to this day.
Third, Hawks Agency is something that can grow beyond just me. When you start your business, it’s often just you. But someday there could be other people connected to it, you could be pulling in additional resources, and you could do something way bigger than you can at the beginning.
What does your name say about your business? Is it something you can pass down in the future? Does it make you smile? Does it set you up well for the future?