Call me what?
It took me months and months to think up a business name for myself. These days it's all in the branding of one self to get noticed. I had many sleepless nights, tossing and turning trying to find words that reflected who I was, what I did and what I stood for. I had pieces of paper everywhere, lists of words in notebooks and in my phone, and talked at anyone that would listen and help me brainstorm. For me it was hard to move onto planning other parts of the business without having THE name. I had convinced myself that it was something that would give me direction and inspire me to do what I had only dreamt of. It does sound silly and I knew it was when it was happening, but I just couldn't get myself to move on.
Branding of a company is like the clothes you wear. People will subconsciously judge and assume a business' quality of service just by looking at their branding materials. The name, the colours, the font, quality of what it's printed on, and all the other frilly bits. For instance, if a service provider handed you a piece of paper with their details scribbled on it, you may subconsciously take it as they're unreliable and a little dodgy. That's why the saying of "first impressions count" rings so true.
Bakeistry came to life one day when my cousin and I were throwing words back and forth over some cake and tea (that's the best way to do it!). I love baking, I have a scientific background so we thought chemistry and decorating cakes is an art form so artistry came into the picture, and when we combined it together it became Bakeistry. I have since excluded the chemistry part of it, only because the perception of science and food combined equals Heston Blumenthal's crazy food experiments...even though baking is a science in itself. So now it's just Baking + Artistry = Bakeistry. A small issue with this name is everyone thinks I'm saying Baker Street. To date only one friend of mine got the baking and artistry straight away but then it could just be my accent??
As soon as I found THE name (this happened several times) I went online to the ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) website to check the business name availability. This is to check if anyone else had already registered the name and to see if it was available to be registered. Fortunately "Bakeistry" was available, so I paid $78 to have the name registered for a period of 3 years. Now it is MINE!
Now that I had THE name, my brain went into overdrive with excitement because I needed a logo created for my brand. Lucky for me, I have a wonderfully creative cousin in the business of graphic designing and she coached me through all my branding needs (It pays when you can make cake!) I found that when i was going through the process of creating my logo, I started taking note of others that were out there in the market. I had to figure out what I liked and disliked, even though I didn't have a clue as to what I wanted. I had to learn to be assertive and be able to clearly communicate across to the designer my thoughts on each design. In the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted my logo to be almost timeless, I didn't want to look back on it in a year's time and go "what was I thinking?!", kinda like the time I was convinced that a permed fringe was an excellent idea (a moment of weakness). Be honest and truthful, but in saying that have constructive criticism as well, because after all you know yourself best and what kind of business you are trying to create.
