I worked with a client the other day who had several separate sites for their business. Although the business has been around for years, it is still in the early stages of development; that being said, multiple free sites are being used to cut back on costs. There’s a blog site, an online store, and a newer site that incorporates both a blog and an online store. The blog site and the online store both have the same name, however the newer site has a completely different name, so my client asked, “Should all my sites have the same name?”

I immediately responded, “Yes, they should. You want to build consistency and name recognition in your brand and it’s going to be almost impossible to do that if on one site you have one name and another site you have another name and maybe over here on this other blog you’re using a third name.”

For whatever goods or services you are trying to sell you want your name or your company’s name to pop into your customer’s head first! This is called Top Of Mind Awareness. In order to build this Top of Mind Awareness you need to have consistency in the message you’re promoting and thereby the name of your various sites.

Now that we’ve established that we need to have consistency between the names at the various sites, which name do we choose? Again, two of the sites have been around for few years and have the same name in the URL, the second site is much newer and has a different name that is intended to be a little catchier and a little more descriptive as to what the business does. Which to pick?

We decided to stick with the original name, but maybe not for the reason you first thought. In a case like this where one name has been used for years and the other is relatively brand new you might think to stick with the older name because it has been out there for a while. But this is not what drove the decision.

What drove the decision was the years worth of feedback data in the online store. As I said earlier, the business is still in the early stages of development and that’s because the business side of this equation has not been approached intentionally, it was the love of producing the goods that was approached intentionally. So the client has a a 100% positive customer feedback rating and is unwilling to trash all the years of meeting / exceeding customers’ expectations. And I don’t blame them.

The ultimate decision was made to stick with the original name for the business that has been around for several years, but to transition to the new site that has the blog and store in one location.

So remember, consistency in the name you are putting out to your customers and clients brings Top Of Mind Awareness, and TOMA brings more business.

Last weekend Skye and I had the Ackerman’s over. It just so happens that La Sha is an artist and has an Etsy shop where she has been selling her works since 2008.

After lunch we were all sitting around and I was asked about my business idea, A Better Way of Business. We had a fun discussion about how I want to help small businesses see that there is a better way of conducting business.

La Sha asked what I thought was an EXCELLENT question. She said, “How could you help my business if you don’t know anything about it?” By that, La Sha was wanting to know how I could possibly help her improve her business if I don’t know the SPECIFICS of selling art, or creating art, or marketing art, or much of anything directly related to art as a whole.

I smiled because I had actually been thinking about that VERY topic earlier in the week. Mainly because I know myself and I KNOW that if I don’t feel confident in my ability I will be WORTHLESS when trying to help someone else. So what do I know about an art studio, or a car parts store, or a chiropractor’s office, or any other of a thousand different fields of business???

That’s just it. That’s what I know. Business. Working as an accountant I get to see a VERY wide range of areas in any businesses that I work in. I see where the money comes from and I see where the money goes to. More and more, I not only see that, but I must also explain why there are variances, so I must know what’s considered normal and then be able to provide an explanation for anything outside of the “norm”.

This means that I need to know what’s going on with sales, as well as what’s happening with production. I see how personnel are being paid and the benefits they receive, as well as which vendors are being used and what they are providing.

What this boils down to is simply this. Business principles are the same from one business to the next. Right now, I can take my knowledge of these principles and help make sure they are being applied in any number of businesses. As an outsider I can apply distant, impartial eyes to see what is actually happening in your business verses what you believe you’re doing in your business.

I do not profess to know the most intimate details of your specific field, but what I do state is that business principles are the same from one field to the next. And I can help make sure that you and your business are implementing and following them.

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Here’s a link to La Sha’s Etsy shop: loveaboveall