Choosing the right name is possibly one of the hardest parts of starting any business, and its a decision you often have to make before you really know where you’re going.

People often ask me the story behind The Scarlet Paw Print name so I thought I would share it with you and maybe provide some inspiration in the process.   I’m sure it will come as no surprise that there was a dog involved in the process!  His name was Arnie and he was a GWP (German Wirehaired Pointer) and a member of the British Army Dog Unit in Northern Ireland, otherwise known as the Red Paw Brigade.  Arnie worked for the army from 3 or 4 years old until he retired at the age of 12 to come and live with me.  I was living and working in London at the time and we struggled together at first as he was used to living outdoors and having a structured working life and his new civilian retired life did mean he spent a fair bit of time on his own inside a flat. I kept his training up as best I could and hired a dog walker so that he was walked at lunchtime as well as before and after work.  Whereas before my work had been my entire focus, now I had Arnie to think of and I began to consider the possibility of actually realising my biggest dream – to move away from London to the countryside and run my own  business.  Whereas before it had seemed an impossibility, suddenly it seemed like the best option available as it would mean Arnie would be where he belonged (GWPs are not city dogs!) and he would have much-needed company all day.  So I put my plan into action.

First I had to come up with a name… I knew I wanted to incorporate ‘red paw’ into it somehow as that was symbolic of the courage that Arnie gave me to make the  move.   The red paw badge that the Army Dog Unit was unified under was representative of when the dogs had to work with bleeding paws whilst carrying out their duties searching for explosives.  The red paw print wax seal I use on my website is my tribute to the red paw badge.   However there were already a number of media companies using red paw in their name so I naturally turned to scarlet paw.  The rest came to me (as is very often the case) whilst on a training session with Arnie one morning.  The command they are taught for searching is Seek and I continued to use this with him whenever I could.  Suddenly putting Seek and Scarlet together set me on the track of The Scarlet Pimpernel (“they seek him here, they seek him there”) and The Scarlet Paw Print was born.

So sometimes it pays not to think too much when it comes to choosing a name but to let your subconscious do it for you – it will invariably choose a name that means something to you which in turn will be a good starting point for a very personalised business – and probably a topic for one of your first blog posts!  On a practical side always make sure you do your research and check Companies House to see if any other companies currently exist under the name you want.  As importantly these days – check that the domain name you want is available, definitely with the .com and .co.uk ending otherwise you could end up being confused with someone else entirely.  It is also worth doing a search on popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to see if there are any similar sounding business names.

Sadly Arnie passed away from cancer just before I moved so he never got to live with me in the country but his legacy will live on through The Scarlet Paw Print, my current and future rescue GWPs and the work I now do with two GWP rescue organisations.

(photo: Shutterstock)