What’s in a Name? How to Choose a Cleaning Business Name

Choosing a Cleaning Business Name that Stands Out

When trying to come up with a cleaning business name, you want something catchy; something that will stick in the minds of your potential clients. Oftentimes, business names aren’t that exciting. But if you can come up with something unique or clever, your business’ name will help you go much farther with your clients. Maybe you want to focus on something that relates to your city (i.e. Maid in Manhattan), or something that speaks to your niche in cleaning (like Polished to Perfection, if your business is focused on detailing). Whatever name you choose, it needs to be memorable, and something that can be marketed well on all media platforms.

Securing the Perfect Name

One of the most important things you need to think about is your website – you need to make sure that the domain is available for the name you’ve chosen. Apart from figuring out your business vision and hiring your staff, creating a solid cleaning business name and website is integral to attracting customers. If they see your name on a flier, the first thing they’ll do is look you up online – your site needs to be top notch to receive further communication. The creation of websites and monitoring is practically a full-time job, especially if you incorporate other social media sites (which you should – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) If you don’t have someone on your team who can handle your social presence online, you may need to hire someone specifically for that position or think about outsourcing to a company that handles online marketing.

What Shouldn’t You Do?

Before we talk about what to do to create a great cleaning business name, let’s go over some things you shouldn’t do first:

•  Don’t use terms that sound negative or have a negative connotation
• Don’t be too generic (‘Cleaning Company, LLC’)
• Don’t use a name that’s already been used by another company
• Don’t choose words that are too hard to pronounce or spell
• Don’t be overly creative – if you pick a name that’s too outside-the-box, it’ll never show up on a web search when someone searches for cleaning companies. There’s a limit to how cute or silly you can be in a name before it becomes unprofessional

Some Practical Steps to the Name Creating Process:

• Take a piece of paper or pull up a Word document and write 2-4 cleaning terms at the top in columns (clean, cleaners, maids, or something more specific to your corner of the industry, like floors or office).
• Search online for the words. Are there a lot of results for each word? This can be a good and bad thing. Here’s a quick crash course on SEO (search engine optimization).
• Pull up thesaurus.com to find other words with similar meanings to the words you’ve chosen. If you get stuck, try talking to friends and family to see if they can help you come up with something you like.
• Start thinking about words that would go with the words you have written down already – for example, if you’ve written “clean” at the top of a column, think of creating a phrase with words like happy clean, insta-clean, clean and shiny, etc.
• Once you have a few possibilities for names, pull up a domain registrar (like Namecheap or Google domains) to verify whether or not your name is a free domain.
• If you figure out something catchy that you like, and the domain is free, you’ll want to check with your local county clerk’s office or the Secretary of State office for your state to see if your business entity name can be approved. You’ll also want to make sure that your name isn’t trademarked elsewhere in the country – you can do a search at the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) to make sure.
• Finally, think of a graphic or a byline for your business that will stand out but not be irrelevant. When you think about Cheerios, you think about the bee cartoon they have in their commercials and on their boxes. When you think about McDonald’s, the yellow arches of the ‘M’ pop into your mind. You want people to see your logo on a flyer or on a vehicle and know exactly what that logo represents.

Time to Get Started

Once you have a great cleaning business name, it’s time to get your operations under control! If you are looking for a business management system to help you organize and plan out your business strategy, Janitorial Manager is the right tool for you. Our cleaning management software system was created for business managers in practically any industry, but it’s an especially spectacular help for cleaning companies. Let us help you build your brand and be the better choice for your potential customers. Give us a call or schedule a free demo today!