She founded it. They funded it. We named the platform for it.

Fair and equal – not words that come to mind when you think about funding for female entrepreneurs. NatWest Group knew that women start businesses at half the rate that men do, and get less funding along the way – and they also knew the disparity wasn’t about a lack of ideas. It was a lack of support.

So they decided to help women own and run more businesses. To carve out a platform for female founders to get the funding they deserve. They’d ironed out all the details: the programme would help women entrepreneurs secure crowdfunded donations, and give them wraparound support to succeed.

But what to call it?

Naming by numbers: five ideas to fit in…

Naming is a battle of real estate. You want to fit in so many ideas – but you need to do it in just a couple of words. This job was no different: the name for the platform needed to communicate supporting women, crowdfunding, donation matching, mentoring, and bridging the gender gap.

… with zero clichés

We wanted to make it clear the programme was just for women, without resorting to clichés or flippant framing – no ‘ladies’, and certainly no ‘lunching’. And we also needed to get across that NatWest Group’s support wouldn’t just be financial – it would involve coaching, mentoring, and the chance to meet like-minded women.

Getting back to business

We came up with over 300 ideas, but kept returning to the idea of ‘back’ or ‘backing’. It covered financial and emotional support. It was snappy and active. It didn’t sound too stuffy or too casual.

NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Ulster Bank are backing female founders, and encouraging others to do the same. We needed a rallying cry, a call to action to make the deliberate choice to support women.

And there it was: Back Her Business.

Off to a roaring start: a memorable name helps women raise over £1.8 million

Back Her Business is well on the way to opening up new ideas, and closing the gender gap. In the first six months, 450+ projects have been successfully crowdfunded, with nearly £1.25 million in backing from individuals, and over £570k in matched NatWest Group donations.

‘This has been one of our more successful naming projects…’ our client told us. ‘No one ever gets it wrong, and it works well as a hashtag. Overall, a big thumbs up.’

Everyone getting the name right is a bigger victory than it sounds, as new names often get confused, or reported incorrectly. Back Her Business has generated tons of buzz on Instagram and Twitter, and people even started using the hashtag #backherbusiness spontaneously before NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Ulster Bank promoted the platform.

Check out Back Her Business for yourself (and if you crowdfund an idea of your own, let us know how you get on).