After building his first company entirely remotely through the use of freelancers and contractors, Sharon Koifman, the President of DistantJob, felt burned by the lack of culture and team cohesion. And that’s how the story of DistantJob began. In this interview for our “Names with stories” series, Sharon answered our questions about the company name, the domain name choice, and his future plans.
What is the story behind DistantJob?
DistantJob came about when I ran a web hosting and outsourcing company and realized that for many companies the reason they go offshore is not because they need someone to take care of their project or manage their team for them, but because the world is full of great talent working from countries where the cost of living is much lower. Once I sold my first company I realized that the focus should be on simply finding the best IT talent the world has to offer and let the client do what they do best, manage them. That when I decided to start the first remote recruitment agency in the world.
When did you start thinking about your company name and how did you settle on DistantJob?
I couldn’t just go with a random name, I needed one that described what I do (find remote talent) while being easy to spell and pronounce.
I couldn’t just go with a random name, I needed one that described what I do (find remote talent) while being easy to spell and pronounce.
Sharon Koifman, President of DistantJob
How did you get the domain name DistantJob.com for your brand? Why did you select that one exactly?
Domain search is a combination of the message you want to deliver and – unfortunately – of what is available. I find that these days, it’s uncommon for people to consider a name for their company without first inspecting the availability of the domain.
How has owning DistantJob.com affected your business? Do you own any other domain names?
Having a domain name that describes what I do makes every sales pitch much easier. I also own “SurvivingRemote.com” which is the name of my book and “ThinkRemote.com” which is our media brand.
Who is your target customer and how is your company name helping in reaching them?
Small to medium size technology companies. Thanks to the brand name, they come to us knowing that they are dealing with someone who specializes in remote people and distributed teams, not just a recruitment agency that does that among many other things.
How do you keep your brand consistent across different channels online and offline?
We tend to focus on everything remote in any other channels. We are working to be authoritative thought leaders.
Has the pandemic affected your company in any way? What has changed since?
It has not affected my company itself, but it has drastically affected our relationship with the market, and for the better. People are not as confused about remote employees. They are much more open to the idea and it requires less time to explain them all the benefits that come with hiring a remote worker.
What do you do to make sure your marketing is effective?
Create amazing content. You can’t compromise; you need to be consistent, but don’t put junk out to the world just for the sake of filling an arbitrary SEO quota.
What would your advice be to entrepreneurs who are just starting out, in general and when it comes to branding and naming?
So first, make sure that you match your vision for the company with available domains. If you must, use a broker to find the correct domain but whatever you do, don’t just register a company without inspecting deeply the domain. Try hard to be first in what you do, even if it means you niche it up a bit and then push that niche as the only thing people in that industry should buy.
Where do you see your business in the future and how does your company name fit into that vision?
We are planning to start a full media company around “thinkremote”. The goal at the end is to associate everything remote with DistantJob. We want people who think “Remote” to think “DistantJob.”
We hope the above information will help you in making informed decisions about your brand. If you want to say hi or have any questions about naming, branding, and domain names get in touch, we’re always happy to hear from you.
Find out more about DistantJob.
branding business name DistantJob domain name domains entrepreneur
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