Not Sure How to Name Your Fitness Business? Use These Tips

You've decided to begin an online training business, or become a gym owner, or offer services as an independent personal trainer. Before you can make your mark in the fitness industry, your business needs a name. Since you will likely use this same title from beginning to end, choosing the right one is important. What are some ways to find the right name for your fitness business?

Become Crystal Clear About Your Brand

Business names are created to represent a brand. As such, your name is a representation of who you are, what you do, and the people you serve. It reflects your mission, goals, and the way you do business. If you aren't crystal clear on where your fitness brand stands in all of these areas, it's hard to come up with a name that encompasses each of these aspects.

As a fitness business, no doubt you help clients live a healthy lifestyle. But what sets you apart from all of the other training businesses in the market? How are you unique? What do you do differently than everyone else? Do you offer a training program that can't be found elsewhere?

Answering these questions can help clarify your brand. This makes it easier to come up with a name that matches your personality and approach when it comes to fitness.

Consider Your Target Audience

How do you want potential clients to feel when they see or hear your business name? Powerful and strong? Healthy and energetic? Choosing a name that elicits these same feelings strengthens the impact of your brand. For example, yoga helps increase mindfulness. If you want to be more appealing to prospective clients who want this benefit, you might use the word "mindful" in your yoga studio name.

Another factor to consider is whether you work with a niche client. Maybe you specialize in training female clients or work solely with youth. Finding ways to use these descriptors in your personal training business name helps make a connection between you and your potential customer.

The goal of considering your target audience is to use terminology that resonates with them. Get them to see that you are the one who can help them reach their fitness goals.

Incorporate Your Services as a Fitness Professional

If you have a specific style of training or offer a certain type of fitness service, you could use this in your name too. Examples of this would include "Tactical," "Boot Camp," or some other type of fitness class.

Using these words in your fitness business name tells clients exactly what you do. It provides insight into what you offer with your personal training services. This makes it easier to decide whether you are the fitness expert for them.

In some cases, these words can be used to differentiate how you offer your services. If you are an online business, include some reference to this in your personal training business name. This sets you apart from trainers who only provide services in person.

Don't be afraid to think beyond the workout either. If you also offer healthy eating plans, you can add a reference to this in your business name. Consider your services as a whole and what you have to offer potential clients.

The one word of caution is to not choose a name that limits the growth of your fitness business. It's difficult to attract clients interested in strength training if your business name includes the phrase "Cardio Dance." If you may want to diversify or enter into other training areas in the future, your name should allow you to do this.

Use Your Name for Your Personal Trainer Business

What do Gunnar Peterson, Lou Ferrigno, and Mark Jenkins—three of the most well-known personal trainers in the U.S.—have in common? When you go to their websites, you don't see a fitness business name. You see their names. They use their first and last name to represent their fitness brand.

You can do the same for your business. Build a brand around your name. Market yourself as a fitness entrepreneur. One benefit of this approach is that you are seen as a real-life person. People get to know you via your fitness marketing strategy, which can be more appealing than choosing a business not attached to a person's name.

Another benefit of using your name is that you aren't pigeon-holed into providing just one type of training. Your business can grow with you. Your branding may change, but you will remain the same. This encourages clients to remain with you.

Admittedly, this option isn't the best if you have a common name. In cases such as this, you may want to use a nickname instead. This adds to your personality even more, helping to further grow your brand.

When You Still Can't Come Up with a Fitness Business Name

What happens when you've developed a higher level of clarity about your brand, thought about your target audience, considered your services, and decided that using your name isn't the best move, and you still don't have a good name for your fitness business?

Get with other small business owners or wellness professionals and hold brainstorming sessions. Try to come up with as many ideas as you can. Write them on a list, no matter how crazy they may sound. Even if a crazy name isn't used, it may be the catalyst that leads you to the perfect name for your fitness business.

You can also use an online business name generator. For example, Business Name Generator asks you to enter words related to your business, click on "Generate," and you are provided a list of options. Using the words "fitness" and "coach," some of the options provided include "Fitness Prime," Fitness Essential," and "Fitness Reset."

Namelix is another option and uses artificial intelligence to generate a business name. When you use this site, you get to choose the name length (short, medium, or long) and name style (brandable, misspellings, person names, and more) you want.

Additional Tips for How to Name Your Fitness Business

There are a few additional things you can do to create a fitness business name that helps propel your brand.

• Aim for short vs long. A short name is easier for potential clients to remember. It also makes it easier to use a short URL for your fitness website, social media accounts, and other online sites.

• Make it catchy. Catchy fitness business names are fun to say. They make people smile. Come up with a name that people want to say. Then create a jingle around your name and post it on your Facebook page.

• Don't get too close to popular gym names. While it may be tempting to pick a business name that is somewhat similar to a popular gym or fitness center name, this could get you in hot water legally. The larger name gym can sue you in court if they feel that you're trying to take their clients by having a very similar name.

Before Settling on a Name for Your Personal Training Business...

Once you have a business name in mind, you want to make sure no one else already uses that name. This requires doing a business name search.

To discover whether another business owner has already used that name in your state, go to your search engine and type in "business entity search" plus your state's name. For example, if you live in Michigan, you would type in "business entity search Michigan." This will lead you to the page where you can do your name search.

Also do a domain check to ensure that you can buy the URL associated with your business name. Instant Domain Search is one site that offers this ability. Simply type in the website address you want to use and see if it is still available. If it isn't, it will offer other variations that you may want to consider instead.

Choosing a name for your fitness business is one of the first steps to building a strong brand. Marketing yourself as a certified professional is another. If you don't yet have this designation, the ISSA offers Personal Trainer certification. This tells potential clients that you have the skills necessary to help them reach their fitness goals. It adds even more credibility to the name you do choose, whatever that name may be.