5 Secrets for Creating a Home Bakery Business Name that Attracts Customers

One of the first things you’ll need to do when you start your own Home Bakery is to choose a Business Name!

This process can be huge fun or a total headache. Your experience will depend entirely upon your attitude to be honest. So I hope you will dive in with a positive mind! 🙂

As you know, my Home Bakery is called Philosophy of Yum. It is quite a unique business name, but I didn’t come across it overnight.

Finding the right name can often take a while, but I want you to know that that’s TOTALLY okay!

Everyone’s journey is different, so don’t put pressure on yourself to rush this process.

Here are the 5 Secrets for Creating a GREAT Home Bakery Business Name.

1. Your Biz Name Should Mean Something to OUTSIDERS

Naming your business after yourself is a SUPER popular thing to do. It’s been popular for ages. But it really isn’t ideal.

My Home Baking Business Name was initially actually Aureo’s Confectionery, believe it or not!

My own name, Aurelia, is quite long and well, Italian, which made it a bit tough for South Africans to pronounce or even just remember.

When Oreo cookies finally arrived in South Africa in my first year of high school, my super cute and easy nickname became Aureo. This was how I introduced myself all throughout university as well – “just call me Aureo! :)”

So when I started baking for fun and had to choose a business name, Aureo’s Confectionery was the logical choice. It was personal, it was slightly punny (which is so me) and made sense…

BUT THIS BUSINESS NAME ONLY MADE SENSE TO THE PEOPLE WHO KNEW ME – AND NO ONE ELSE.

I made the mistake of thinking my business is about ME so I named my business for MYSELF, not for my clients.

The problem with naming your Home Baking Business after yourself is that it doesn’t say anything about your BUSINESS at all. And it definitely doesn’t say anything about how you help your clients at all.

In an outsider’s subconscious mind they’ll be thinking: “Yes, you are the baker, but how does that benefit me?”

RELATED: 5 Mindset Shifts of Successful Home Bakery Owners

Let’s do a little test…

If you read through a list on Google of Bakeries in your area and you see:

Tiffany’s Bakery

Nicole’s Cakes

Katie’s Cookies

Philosophy of Yum

Justine’s Confections

Which one stands out and sparks your interest? Which one already informs you what the bakery is about before you’ve even been to their website?

When I started trading at Food Markets in Cape Town, I kept trying to think of a great tagline I could write on my blackboard sign. I wanted to come up with a tagline to better describe what I do since Aureo’s Confectionery didn’t mean much in a city where no one knows me.

I ended up writing “Our philosophy is yumminess”, since FLAVOUR and QUALITY totally form the foundation my bakes (and business) and make them so special.

This is what sets me apart from my competitors and the main-steam decoration obsessed bakeries we find today.

After much thought I realized that my tagline represented my bakes better than my actual business name did. It should not be this way.

After 3 years of baking as “Aureo’s Confectionery”, I decided to change my Home Baking Business Name to “Philosophy of Yum”. Best decision EVER.

So remember that you are not naming your business for yourself since your business is not about you.

Your Business Name should ideally sum up how your baking benefits your IDEAL CLIENT.

2. Your Business Name Should Be Easy to Pronounce

Foreign languages have so many beautiful words that sound super poetic. BUT be careful with these words.

You might like many French words like “Toujours” because it’s beautiful, but will at least 90% of the people in your city understand what it means or even just know how to pronounce it?!

My one friend in Canada has a Home Bakery called Bake Toujours. It means Bake Always. She can totally do this in Canada because most Canadians understand French. French is their official second language.

In South Africa this would not work at all! People would spend the first 30 seconds on my website trying to figure out how to pronounce this weird word and then give up. What a missed opportunity!

I could have given them a Business Name that already hooks them and draws them in. But people feel frustrated and confused when they can’t pronounce your business name.

So make your business name easy to understand and easy to pronounce.

When you do this you are considering your client’s needs above your own – and that’s the mark of a great business owner.

3. Business Name Brain Dumping

Here’s a practical exercise to help you find the perfect name for your Home Baking Business. In your Workbook, do a little brain dumping.

This means writing down any and every word (and sentence) that comes to mind about your bakes and business ideals.

Choose descriptive words, meaningful words, words that best describe what clients can experience when eating one of your creations. Words that represent ideals your business stands for.

You can even get some close family and friends to help you with this process.

Also, don’t rush this. If you don’t feel you have the right words yet; wait a day or two and do some research to find the perfect words.

Search for synonyms to your words online. Often you’ll be so close in the idea of what you want to say with your business name, but then a synonym was all you needed.

Once you feel all the words on your page encompass what your bakes are about, you can proceed to rearrange them in different ways.

You’ll know it’s “the one” when you find it!

If you’re not 100% satisfied and HAPPY about the new name, go back and keep rearranging.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to let it simmer a day or two or even a few weeks if necessary before you make a final decision.

4. Make Sure Your Business Name is Unique

When you feel you’re onto a winning name, be sure to do your homework and see if this name is indeed available!

The last thing you want is to create a logo, print business cards and only then find out that someone in your city has the exact same Home Bakery name!

The way you avoid this is to educate yourself online to see if your business name has been used already for a website domain or if it is still available.

Search for your prospective business name with .com, .org and then also for domain names specific to your own country like .co.za (for South Africans), .co.uk (for those in the UK), dot com.au (for Australians).

If no one has snapped up the domain name yet, then it’s safe to go ahead and pick your prospective business name as your official business name.

RELATED: 14 Tools You Need to Start a Home Bakery Business

5. Make Sure No One Steals Your Business Name

And now it’s time for some insurance. You obviously don’t want anyone to steal your business name. Trademarking your name and logo is an option, but it can be a very expensive, stretched out process.

The easiest way to protect your name is to reserve your website domain (yourhomebakeryname.com) through Wix. Here’s a tutorial to show you how to do this.

You don’t have to build a website right now if you don’t want to, but reserve your domain so that no one takes your business name.

You can either sign up to Wix’s premium plan which includes a free domain registration, or you can buy your chosen domain for just under US$15 per YEAR which means it’s just over US$1 per month – it’s really not much and so worth it!

Reserving your domain is your insurance because no one in their right mind is going to pick a business name that they cannot use as their website address.

And that’s it my friend! I hope these secrets help you to find the ideal business name for your Home Bakery 😀

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)