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Naming a business – a few tips from experts

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In an earlier post, we reported that most UK small businesses are no longer seeing the need to name their companies based on their family names. In the survey conducted by British Gas Business , 74 per cent of business owners now prefer more memorable names that are not related to any kind of family ties in forming their business .

According to British Gas Business’ commercial director, Adrian Harvey said “Small businesses have to punch above their weight to compete against larger competitors with more established brands. A company’s name plays an important role in doing this as it can quickly inform a potential customer of the product or service on offer. If a name is not carefully thought through and does not properly reflect what you do, potential customers will go elsewhere.”

Harvey said that with the internet playing a bigger role as the search method of choice for consumers, more businessmen who and operate a business feel that a company that is named after a family name will not be noticed. They now want names that will be easily noticed and will be memorable.

Here are some things to consider when naming your business:

* Are you considering a name that would reflect what your business does – framing, moving, cleaning, building? Alternatively, would you like to use a more abstract name?
* Do you want to use a traditional-sounding name that evokes durability and old- fashioned values, or a modern name, that paints a picture of freshness and innovation?
* Think about the future – avoid words or phrases that are likely to become easily dated.
* If your business will have some aspects of overseas trading check that the name doesn’t mean anything inappropriate in the relevant languages. Also, determine if the name will be easily read and pronounced.
* Think about your callers and customers – avoid very long names, unusual words and spelling.
* Check that no one else is using the name you choose.

Offshoring and quality

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It used to be that when an item is “made in Taiwan,” it’s a cheap knock-off that’s bound to break down after a few uses or a short period of time. Now, however, Taiwan is at the forefront of technological innovation, with development of customer-grade and high-end computer systems. For instance, did you know that majority of the laptop computers shipped worldwide were made in Taiwan by little-known—but very large—production companies that manufacture computers to specification by their American or European clients?

This only means one thing: in the business of offshoring, “cheaper” doesn’t always translate to “lower quality.” Companies have made their systems more efficient, capital, technology, and labor-wise that they can afford to do things at a lower price than, say, if these business processes were done in more expensive locations in the world. In this case, when efficiency means either lower cost or higher quality output, it’s likely to be both—high quality at a low cost.

Offshoring and international economics (continued)

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Business process offshoring is basically an offshoot of the “comparative advantage” argument in international economics, where countries that can produce output at lower costs usually get the deal. And lately, this has been true for developing countries, where companies’ business processes—including customer contact centers, programming, bookkeeping, and data management—are usually outsourced. What’s great is that the cost of offshoring these business processes is definitely lower than what one would expect to pay in more developed countries, with higher costs of living and higher overheads.

Another concern of those against offshoring is the quality of work. Some would argue that workers in developing countries are good at performing skilled work, but not necessarily better at analytical tasks. However, it can be argued that in most cases, our counterparts in less affluent economies can be as skilled and knowledgeable as we are—and this includes instances where astute decision making and recommendations are needed.

Offshoring and international economics

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Business process offshoring, or also called outsourcing, is just another economic concept business people are expected to be in the know of. This trend in how companies produce goods or services has existed since decades gone by, but it’s only now that it’s in the limelight, because of increasing pressure from some sectors of western society for companies to stop trading goods and services with developing countries with lower labour costs. It is argued that the presence of low cost workers in other countries, along with cheap shipping costs, is killing local companies and putting locals out of work.

However, this very concept had been the brainchild of great European thinkers, who posited that the world is just one big market, with each country producing a good or service that it is at an advantage over other countries, depending on human, natural, capital, or intellectual resources. So in this case, if a certain country can produce a certain kind of good or service cheaper and more efficiently, then it is at an advantage over others where production cost is higher.

New software helps deal with absenteeism

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Based on a survey conducted by the Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), about one in four small and medium sized business has had more staff taking sick leaves than it has taken action against.

But almost 90 per cent of businesses have revealed that they would actually discipline their workers if they were legally confident in doing so.

Armed with this information ELAS has released a computer program that will help employers stay within the bounds of the law. The software, a personnel package, will not only keep a record of a worker’s sick days but also alert managers when the levels of absenteeism has already become a problem. The program will then guide them through the correct disciplinary measures to take.

Company formation and business solutions experts agree that these innovative way of handling the absenteeism problem will be a boon to employers who do not know how to go about disciplining lazy staff.