Selecting a name for your practice is one of the most important business decisions you will make. Your company name should convey to your clients and prospects a picture of what you and your business stand for.

Your business’s name represents your beliefs and values, says Sylvia Garibaldi, a business-building coach with SG and Associates in Toronto. So, your company name becomes your brand.

Yesterday’s BYB article offered tips on how to craft a business name. Here are five ways to help ensure you create a name that makes you stand out from the crowd:

1. Keep it short
To be effective, a name should be brief and to the point.

Your company name could be up to four or five words, according to Garibaldi: “You don’t want it to be a sentence.”

2. Say what you mean
Make sure the name you choose truly reflects the services you offer. Otherwise, clients could feel misled.

For example, if you call your business “Smith Wealth Management Group,” Garibaldi says, then you must be able provide wealth-management services, such as financial planning, full-service investment planning and insurance advice.

3. Google it
When you think you may have found an appropriate name, do a quick online search to find out if anyone else has thought of using the same business name.

“You would be surprised about some of the things that come up [in a Google search],” Garibaldi says.

Watch out for unwanted word associations and similarity with names of local businesses that could confuse people.

4. Get professional help
Once you have decided on a name, get a professional to create a logo.

Garibaldi suggests hiring a graphic designer or a marketing consultant to create the logo. You need an effective logo because it will appear on all printed materials and digital communications, from your business cards to your website.

5. Reserve a domain name
Once you have chosen a company name, be sure to create your place on the web. To do that, Garibaldi says, you need a domain name — for example, investmentexecutive.com is a domain name

You can register your domain name through a certified domain registrar, such as Canadian Domain Name Services Inc. (www.cadns.ca). Domain name registrars usually charge a fee for reserving a domain name. For example, Canadian Domain Name charges $19.99 per year.

This is the second in a two-part series on naming your business.