You've chosen a name: what to do next

Once you’ve chosen a name, the first job is to secure it, and the order matters. Domains can be registered by anyone in seconds, and in most countries a trade mark goes to whoever files first. This checklist takes you through it, roughly fastest and cheapest first.

Today: the domains

1. Register the main domain, and the .com if that isn’t your main one. It takes minutes and costs little; leaving it a week is how names get lost.
2. Add the obvious variants you’d hate to see someone else own: your country ending, the hyphenated form of a two-word name, a common misspelling. Point them all at the main address later.
3. Turn on auto-renewal and registrar lock, and use an email address you’ll still read in five years for the account. Expired domains are snapped up by automated buyers within days.
4. Turn on privacy for the owner’s details (WHOIS privacy) if the registrar offers it, to keep your address out of public lookups and spammers’ lists.

Our guide to domain endings explains which are worth having.

This week: the handles

5. Claim the social media handles on the platforms your customers use, even ones you won’t post on yet. Keep the spelling identical everywhere if you can.
6. Set up email on your domain (hello@yourname.com) rather than a free address: it looks more established and stays yours if you change provider.

Before you announce: the legal checks

7. Run a proper trade mark search for similar names in your classes, as described in trade mark basics. synym’s lights rule out identical marks in two registers; this is the step that finds the near misses.
8. Check the company register in each country where you’ll set up a company, and reserve or register the name if you’re incorporating.
9. File your trade mark application in your main market, covering the classes for what you’ll sell now and in the next few years. If you plan to expand abroad within six months, an application filed now gives you priority when you file elsewhere: under the Paris Convention, later applications in other member countries can claim your first filing date if made within six months.

Before you print: the details

10. Write the name down properly: how it’s capitalised, whether two words are joined, how it’s pronounced. Decide once, and use it consistently on everything.
11. Commission the logo after the name is secure, not before. A logo designed around a name you then lose is money wasted.
12. Tell the people who matter: your accountant, bank and insurer will need the registered name; your suppliers and early customers will appreciate hearing it from you.

Later: keeping it

• Use the name the way you registered it. In most registers a trade mark not used for five years can be cancelled.
• Watch for copycats. Several services alert you to new applications similar to your mark; an opposition during the publication period is far cheaper than a court case later.
• Keep the renewals in a calendar: domains every year or two, trade marks every ten years.

If you’re still choosing, how to choose a business name has a checklist for comparing your shortlist, and synym will find more names with free domains to compare.