Choosing a business name for my complementary therapy business was a lot more difficult and took much longer than I had anticipated. For years I have been using just my name and tagging Massage or Complementary Therapist on at the end. At the start this was okay but I felt the time was right to give my business some structure and so having a business name would help me to achieve this.
My first approach was to think of a good name for my website but all the most popular domain names had already been taken. I needed something that was memorable, easy to say, unique, distinctive, described what I did and was also still available as a website domain name.
Initially I was deciding between the names Massage by Grace or Massage with Grace. My first name is Grace so I really wanted to include it in my business name. I felt that both names were simple and said what I did. I ran it by a few of my therapist colleagues and some friends who all thought both were good names. However when I mentioned it at a social gathering, my friend’s husband repeated the name in a way that sounded more sleazy than therapeutic so that was the end of those names.
On the Internet I looked at the foreign translations of words that described my work, maybe having an exotic slant would make my business sound more appealing and distinctive. I trawled through dictionaries and thesauruses looking for the right words to jump out at me. There are thousands of words in the dictionary so surely something would fit but alas this wasn’t the case. I didn’t want predictable words like hands and healing. I also needed to avoid words that might align my business with adult services or the escort industry.
My focus was just on my new business name but I also needed to think of a logo to go with it. Again there are logos in the world of therapies that bore me to tears, not meaning any disrespect to those therapists who use them but logos with hands, the ying and yang circle and butterflies don’t do it for me. I had a consultation with my graphic designer and talked through the things I did and didn’t like in terms of design. I wanted my business to appeal to both men and women so something neutral that was neither too feminine nor masculine would be perfect.
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also mentioned that I really liked wood and in particular Ashanti hand carved wooden stools from Ghana. As well as being something to sit on the symbols in the centre of the stool have specific meanings based on Adinkra symbols. As a child I sat on one of these stools whilst my mother plaited my hair.A few weeks later my graphic designer presented me with my new logo. The logo is based on the Ashanti wooden stools with a leaf at its centre.
To those not familiar with the stools, my logo may look like an essential oil burner with a leaf. Whatever people make of my logo is fine by me, as I know that it perfectly represents me.
So I’ve got the logo but what about the name? After playing with variations of Unique Essence, Grace Essence, and Natural Essence it finally came to me Natural Grace Therapies.
NATURAL – my massage therapy treatments are natural, I use natural base oils, pure essential oils, and I am quite a natural person.
GRACE– this is my name and also describes a sense of calm, peace, and movement.
THERAPIES – massage therapies is what I do and the word leaves me scope for adding non massage therapies in the future.
The journey to finding the right business name for me took about 6 months, it was long with a few twists and turns along the way but I got there eventually and I must say that I am more than happy with the final result.
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