Cookies Business Name: 4 Checks Before You Print a Label

On this page

1. What the label already demands from your name
2. Where to find a name that still fits
3. The four checks, in order
4. What the name has to earn back
5. Mistakes that cost you money
6. Put the name where customers already look

You are not naming a hobby. The cookies business name you choose will sit on every box, every label, and every market sign, and it has to match what your state has on file. Get it right once and you stop paying for reprints.

What the label already demands from your name

If you sell under cottage food rules, your name is not just marketing. The Washington County cottage food FAQ says the label must carry the name and the address or identification number of the business. That line sits beside your street address, so a long name pushes everything else off the sticker.

The same FAQ lists an identification number as an alternative to the street address. Ask your state agency which one applies to you before you design the sticker, because the answer changes how much room you have left for the name.

Short names also survive the market table. A banner gets read from across a parking lot, and a card gets read in a purse. The name that works in both places is usually two words, plain spelling, no numbers.

Where to find a name that still fits

Start with what you sell and where you sell it. A town name, a texture, a shape, or a family word gives you something specific that a hundred other bakers are not already using. Write ten versions in a note on your phone before you judge any of them, and read good name for home baking business if you want a second set of checks.

Then cut. Cross out anything you have to explain, anything with a number in it, and anything that only makes sense in your own head. What is left is usually two or three words that read cleanly on a label and sound normal on the phone.

Say each one to a person who does not bake. If they repeat it back correctly, it passes. If they ask a question about it, it fails. Keep the ones that pass on a short list and leave the rest.

Keep a second list of names you almost picked. When a check fails at nine at night, you move to the next name instead of starting over from nothing.

The four checks, in order

Run these four checks in one sitting, with the short list in front of you. Each one takes minutes, and a failure sends you to the next name instead of to the printer.

1. 1

   Fit it on the label

   Write the name and your address on one line at the size you will print. If it does not fit, shorten the name now, not after the order.

2. 2

   Say it on the phone

   Give the name to a friend once, out loud. If they ask you to spell it, cut a word or change the spelling.

3. 3

   Search your state records

   Look the name up in your state’s business name search. If it is taken, move to the next name on the list.

4. 4

   Search the trademark database and the web address

   Check the USPTO trademark search and see whether the matching web address is free. Both take a few minutes.

Write the winner down with the date and the four results. If you still like it a week later, order the labels. A week of waiting is cheaper than a box of stickers you will not use.

What the name has to earn back

For example, say a 48 cookie batch uses $9 of ingredients, takes 1.5 hours at $15 an hour, and needs $6 of boxes and labels. Your Brevl shop is $20 a month, about $2.50 a batch across eight batches. That is $40 to make four dozen. At $18 a dozen you take in $72 and keep $32, a 44 percent margin.

That margin is why the order matters. A name you change in month three means new labels, a new banner, and new cards, and every dollar of it comes out of the same $32. Run the same math on your own batch using what to charge for homemade baked goods before you order anything with the name on it.

The name does not create the margin. It protects it, by keeping you out of reprints and out of the phone call where you spell your own business twice.

Mistakes that cost you money

Check the web address in the same sitting. If the exact match is gone, a slightly longer version still works, but say it out loud first. An address you have to spell is a customer who never arrives.

None of these mistakes show up on the day you pick the name. They show up three weeks later, when the banner arrives and the web address does not match it.

Do one last pass before you commit: state records, trademark search, web address, and the label line. Four checks, one afternoon. That afternoon costs less than a reprint and a new banner.

Put the name where customers already look

Your name shows up in four places: the label, the market sign, the web address, and the card you hand over. Write all four out before you commit. The one that looks wrong is usually the web address.

The sign and the card come last. Order a small run first, live with it for a market weekend, and then order the big batch. Names that look fine on a screen sometimes look wrong in daylight.

• Name for Baked Goods: 5 Checks Before You Print Labels
• How to start a home based cookie business
• Cookies From Home Website: Cost, Orders, and First Sale

Common questions

Can I use my own name as my cookie business name?

You can, and it is easy to say on the phone. Think about selling later, because a name tied to one person is harder to hand over. Search it in your state records first, and check that it still fits on a label next to your address.

Does my business name have to be on every label?

Check your state's rule before you print. The Washington County cottage food FAQ says the label must include the name and the address or identification number of the business. If your state uses the same pattern, the name goes on every label you stick on a box.

What if the name I want is already taken?

Pick a different one before you print. If the name is taken in your state records, your label, sign, and cards all have to match whatever you register instead. Changing later means paying for all of it twice, and the second print run is never cheaper than the first.

Should the name say what I sell?

It helps when someone reads your sign from the road. A name with cookie, bake, or treat in it tells a new customer what you do without a second look. Keep the rest short so the whole line still fits on a small label.

How long should a cookie business name be?

Short enough to fit on one label line beside your address. Two words is a good target, and three works if one of them is short. If you have to shrink the font to make it fit, the name is doing too much.

Sources

1. Cottage Food FAQs, Washington County

General information, not legal advice. Check your state's cottage food labeling rule and business name registration with your state agency before you print.