How to decide on your Animal Training logo/business name… ?

I’m curious, have you ever started your own Animal Training business? And/or is this something you would like to do? And if so how did you go about choosing the name & designing the logo? … This is a recent conversation that we had within the community areas of the Animal Training Academy membership & it has inspired me to share my personal journey doing these two things;

As with everything within Animal Training Academy though, I totally strive to not be the smartest person in the room lol – but rather surround myself with individuals whom are smarter than I. consequently with business related endeavours my first step is always to direct people to whom I would label as the subject matter experts in our industry. Specifically within the ATA content library this would be Veronica Boutelle and the team @ Dog Biz.

I have learned a tonne from Veronica over the years & you can read about 5 of the biggest things she has taught me in this previous blog post here >>> 5 Animal Training Business Lesson from Veronica Boutelle

All the things I have learned form Veronica definitely played a big part in helping to create my latest logo – One which I intend to use in my local geographical area, specifically for dog training. See below ⬇️

For the actual creation of the logo though – a MASSIVE shout out to the amazing Lili Chin for actualising my ideas.I told Lili what I wanted and she produced this master piece! I do believe that if you are going to get something professionally designed, then choosing the right person is an important part of that process (a lesson I learned the hard way – see below with the ATA logo ⬇️).

I cannot recommend Lili’s wonderfulness enough & you can learn more about Lili & her work in this recent ATA podcast episode here >>> https://bit.ly/ATA_Lili_Chin

What I love about Lili Chin is her ability to (in my opinion) to get so much information across in simple cute drawings! I believe this logo does just that, which is why I wanted her to design it for me. Below – I will also add a photo (featuring my dog Fibi) that I took AFTER she had already finished the design. And you will see she captured what I wanted perfectly!

In choosing the name “Kapiti Dog Trainer” I wanted it to be straightforward. I wanted someone (I.e. a potential client) to know exactly what I was offering them when they looked at that image. Paired with the text I think it’s pretty obvious! I offer dog training in the Kapiti Region lol.

Also, some elements of the design are significant parts of our local geographical area. Both in the actual photo of Fibi and Lili’s design you you can see a native NZ flax plant (on the left) and Kapiti Island in the background. I feel all people that live in this region will immediately know that this business is relevant to their geographical location!

I also thought the name was short & easy to remember (once again for locals in my area).

Now – my next logo design story is not as “classy” as my one above lol. This time we are going back 5-ish years – where I’m going to share with you the original logo I got designed for ATA (Note I’ve barely every used this because I don’t actually like it lol) ⬇️.

I got the logo designed in 2016 via a platform called Fiverr – a platform where you connect with individuals from around the world and whom all have specific skill sets (for example logo design) One of the big advantages of Fiverr is it can be cheap.

I found my experience using Fiverr challenging though. One reason might have been because the designer I chose did not speak English as their first language and I found the communication required more skill then I had to offer lol! The animals look like clip art images and let’s be honest I don’t have that much hair ahahaha

The business name – Animal Training Academy – actually arose because of my friends business. His business is about tuning high performance cars and is called ‘High Performance Academy’. So I just thought about my content ‘Animal Training’ and thought about my friends (High Performance) ‘Academy’ & boom “Animal Training Academy” was born!

I kind of like this story and also feel it’s a little bit unimpressive at the same time! lol

In saying all of this I think choosing a good name is important & at the same time I also feel we don’t always know what is and what is not going to work… we might think something is an awful idea and then our audience loves it! On the other hand we might think our idea is gangbusters and then when we present it to our audience and we get met with *crickets” lol (I have most definitely experienced this before… MANY MANY times ahahaha).

If possible – a great idea might be to talk with your potentail clients and run your ideas past them to get their feedback. I have also found running polls on FaceBook to be a great way of seeing what resonates the most.

Oh and then of course most recently … THIS amazing-ness ⬇️ was (again) created by Lili Chin. I am now very attached to the below image (mainly because it features Lili’s dog Boogie lol).

And there you have it … that’s my story so far, with logo design & business name creation. What about you? How did you come up with your Animal Training logo & business name? I would love to hear from you & for you to share it with me. You can comment directly below this email and let me know! I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s. Check out what one of our member Lee Stone recently posted on FaceBook about her membership experience (& apparently my business knowledge)!

Do you want help with your personal animal training projects? Feedback on your videos? Answer to your burning questions? The ATA membership exists for you! To help you with your personal animal training & behavior goals! Join now and get the answers/feedback you have been looking for…