I do not profess to be an expert at marketing and branding, as a matter of fact, marketing and branding have been one of the hardest parts of my startup, legal being THE hardest.  So, what is in a name?  Would Google have been as successful had the called the company Search Boss, King of Search or something really simple like SearchOne?  What if Apple had been Orange?  What about Microsoft?  It’s a household name today, but think about it Micro Soft?  It tells who it is, software for what was known as a Micro computer, but what if Microsoft wanted choose Gatesware, would it have been as successful.   We will never know.

We havestruggled with the name for our company.  At the advice of my wife, I looked for a name with the hard K sound… think Coke and Kodak.  After a few weeks of considering options, we decided on Clicknation.  It had the hard K sound and somewhat describes who we are; a Nation of people clicking on the internet.  Down the road a bit, we will introduce a play on the work “click” as well.  After deciding on the name, we started sharing it.  Some loved it, other hated it.  My partner’s high school age daughter REALLY hated it.  We thought about a name change, but decided to run with it.

If the name were not hard enough, what about a logo?  It took over a year to finally decide on a logo.  I personally made a choice about 8 months ago, but ended up seeing the error of my ways!  We went through many variations and really did not decide on the current logo – until we saw it on a t-shirt.  The designer, Brant (www.stationx.tv) did a good job of helping guide me though the process.  Still, there were many people that did not like it, but a decision had to be made.  I get it, understand it and love it, yet I have to respect those that don’t.  But be clear, the reason we are running with it is because the people that we want as our members love it too.

All this said to point out that nothing is really easy about a start-up.  When you are “all in” in a start-up company, you question every decision and seek advice, but in the end YOU have to make a decision.  I just pray the decisions I am making are the right ones, because this is too good of an idea let fail.  Remaining true to the goal of creating a company to help most anyone make some extra money, I have a big responsibility on my shoulders, not to mention the sacrifices my family has had to make.

Here’s to a great future and I wish success to everyone that reads this.

Doug