Techniques for Naming Your Tutoring Business

Business name parts
Small businesses or new businesses often have two parts to their business names. The first part can be described as the unique part and the second part is the descriptive portion. Some people try to use only a unique name for their business without a descriptive part. This is generally a bad idea for small businesses because without the descriptive portion people won’t know what services your business offers. Over time as your brand becomes well-known in your market you should be able to drop the descriptive portion of your name and people will still know what business you’re in.
The unique portion of a business name takes many forms. The following list contains several variations of the unique portion that are often used for tutoring business names.
Aspirational
Tutoring businesses often use words related to success, reaching goals, and succeeding since these are some of the reasons people hire tutors. Words like “Elite”, “Ivy”, “A+”, and so on are examples of aspirational words. Check the thesaurus for more ideas for your business. Words like these are great for a tutoring business name because people will begin to associate your business with success.
Geography – Tutoring companies often operate in specific geographic markets so including the name of your market in your company’s name is a good strategy. For example, you might name your company “Grand Rapids Tutoring” if your company is based in Grand Rapids. A name that includes your location is an effective way to communicate to people in your area that you offer tutoring for their area.
Unique Value
Many businesses have a unique value proposition – something that distinguishes them from their competitors. If your business offers some kind of unique value to customers you might want to include this in your business name. Examples include words like “Traveling”, “One-on-One”, or “Total Math”. Unique value propositions can be related to your method of teaching, grade level, subject you specialize in, etc.
Subject Specific
If your tutoring company specializes in a single subject you might want to create a unique name related to the subject in which you specialize. Unique names can include words in a foreign language you teach, terminology such as “Pi”, or names of influential figures in your subject such as “da Vinci”, “Pascal” or “Einstein”.
Personal Name
Using your own last name in the name of your tutoring business is another useful technique for naming your business. Many successful companies have used this naming technique (i.e. Kumon, Huntington Learning Centers in the United States, Kip McGrath in Australia. This technique can become even more effective if you are already well-known for your work in the education field.
The second part of your business name should be the descriptive portion. Including words such as tutoring, tutors, education, academy, learning, learning center, etc. The descriptive portion of your business name is what tells people what your company does. This is very important when your business is starting out since you want to begin establishing a link between the unique part of your business name and the descriptive portion in people’s minds.
Conclusion
The naming techniques above should help you generate several ideas. By creating different combinations of the unique and descriptive portions you can create even more name variations. Create a list of your top ideas and ask your friends or coworkers which ones they like the best and you’ll have a name that will help your business grow and establish a strong brand.