When you launch a new business (or want to refresh an old one), you'll want to develop a brand tha makes you distinctive and attractive to your customers.

The first part of this is working out why your business exists, and why customers will choose you.

Once this is done you choose the name - something that some entrepreneurs agonise over for months. In my books I say that you don't need to spend to long over this. Any name is just what you make it. If you were sitting down to name a grocery shop today would you think you'd had a Eureka moment when you came up with the idea 'Tesco'? But having a rubbish company name doesn't seem to have done them any harm!

Of course having a great name can give you an advantage - but not as big an advantage as having great products, great sales skills, and great customer service - so it's better to put the time into these if time is scarse. I post elsewhere on this blog about thinking up a name for your business.

The next stage in developing your brand is designing the visual elements.

One part of this is the logo, and again, some entrepreneurs can take months over different ideas and designs before settling on one.

So here are some helpful logo design links:

And finally, do make sure there isn't an unintended side-effect from your company name or logo. Pen Island seems a perfectly good name for an online website selling pens - until you realise that their website is therefore penisland.com, which some people could misinterpret and could get them blocked by spam filters when they do an email newsletter! For your amusement, here are the nominees in the Phallic Logo Awards - make sure you don't become one of them next year!