Naming + Branding Kit
Name your business so customers remember it and you get to keep it: a recall test on real people, a dated clearance search, and a one-page brand sheet any printer can follow.
What’s Inside
- The Name Triangle: Recognize, Remember, Protect, and the trade-off between them
- The 15-minute name screen: 5 searches, with your guess written first
- The distinctiveness ladder in plain words, from the USPTO's own categories (checked October 2026)
- The Position Sheet and claim check: what your name has to carry
- A recall test on 5 to 10 people from your market, scored and ranked
- A dated clearance log, a stop rule, and what to ask a trademark attorney
- A one-page starter brand sheet: colors by role with measured contrast, type by role, voice in 3 lines
- A touchpoint count and consistency ratio, day 1, 30 and 90
- The rename decision: a payback check on gross profit and the order of operations
- 17 worksheet templates and a 4-sheet tracker spreadsheet
The Problem
Most owners check a name once: the exact spelling, in one search box. Then they print the cards and wrap the van. That misses the sound-alike two counties over, and it misses the bigger problem. A name that describes what you do is easy to understand and hard to keep. A name that is easy to keep has to be taught to every customer. Nobody tells you the tests pull against each other.
The more a name describes, the easier it is to understand and the harder it is to keep.
The Name Triangle
3 jobs every business name has to do. No name wins all 3, so you choose the balance on purpose.
- RECOGNIZE: can someone hear it once and know roughly what you do?
- REMEMBER: can they recall it tomorrow and spell it well enough to find you? Tested on 5 to 10 real people from your market.
- PROTECT: can you keep others off something close, and are you clear of whoever was there first? A dated search of federal, state, Google Maps and your trade's directories.
Chapters
- The 15-Minute Name Screen. 5 searches on the name you have, with your guess written first.
- Why Names Fail. Too clever, too generic, taken, and the 4th one nobody names.
- The Position Sheet. Who it is for, the one problem, what you do that others skip, what you believe, and the claim check.
- Name It. 20 candidates, the distinctiveness ladder, the local-owner rule, the recall test, the clearance log, when to call an attorney.
- The Starter Brand Sheet. One page, one hour before your first customers, the full page before anything permanent.
- Put It Everywhere, the Same Way. The touchpoint count and the logos-hidden test.
- Renaming an Existing Business. When it is worth it, the payback check, and the order of operations.
Plus 2 composites and 1 that went wrong, the scorecard for this week, metrics, common mistakes, the 30 and 90 day look-back, and a dated fee and link appendix.
From Chapter 1
Most owners check a name once. They type the exact spelling into one search box, see nothing, and print the business cards. That is not a search. It is a hope with a date on it.
Already Running a Business?
Chapter 7 is the rename decision. 3 real reasons to rename (a conflict, a limit, real confusion) and 1 bad one (boredom). Count the confusion for 30 days, run the payback check on gross profit, and if you do rename, follow the order that keeps your profile, your domain and your customers with you.
Who This Is For
A founder naming a local service business for the first time, or the owner of a running business deciding whether a rename is worth what it costs.
Questions
Is this legal advice? No. It teaches you what to search, what to write down and what to ask. Anything close to another business's name goes to a trademark attorney before you spend money on it.
Do I need a designer? Not to start. Before your first paying customers the brand sheet is your name, a position line, 1 color and 1 font. The full page comes before you buy a sign or a wrap.
Does it tell me what score a name needs to pass? No. There is no honest pass mark. You rank your own finalists against each other.
Does it cover the domain and email? It checks the domain is free. Registration and email setup live in the Domain + Hosting Setup Guide.
Read it in your library.
This is included with The Standard, along with every other guide in the library. Your monthly re-audit tells you which one to open next. $497 to start, $297/mo to keep it running. Cancel any month and keep everything.
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