Virginia Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Alexandria, Virginia
Thinking about starting a business in Alexandria, Virginia? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Alexandria.
Choosing the Right Company to Start
Choosing a business that is right for you is very important. To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to read Good Business Ideas.
If you still are not sure what type of business to start, peruse the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our How to Start a Building Construction & Design Consultants Business guide or our Starting a Building Contractors Commercial & Industrial Business guide.
Don't forget that you are opening your new business in Alexandria. Some businesses will do better in Alexandria than others. Only by spending some time analyzing Alexandria demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Alexandria, Virginia Demographic Information
Alexandria has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Alexandria demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Alexandria.
Businesses
As a new Alexandria entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Alexandria for each business category. By looking at this chart, you can get a general sense for how much competition there is in the business niche that you are pursuing.
Businesses
Have You Considered Franchising?
As you drive around Alexandria, you may be surprised to see how many franchises there are in the area. So, it probably makes sense for you to consider franchising too.
We highly recommend you investigate buying a franchise. We have many articles on franchises, such as Evaluating Franchise Opportunities. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.
Sample franchise opportunities include Octoclean Franchising and Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Blind Repair and Sales Franchises and Flooring Franchises.
Note on Alexandria Franchise Opportunities: To find out if a franchise you are interested in is available in Alexandria, you will need to get in direct contact with the franchisor.
Have You Considered Buying an Existing Alexandria Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Virginia. Follow that link and you may find several good businesses for sale in Alexandria.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.
Selecting a Name For Your Company
A big decision when starting a company is choosing a company name. Believe it or not, choosing a good company name can be a big contributor to your business success.
Pick a company name that isn't too generic. If you do a search engine search for your proposed name and a billion results come up, you may want to reconsider the name. It's much easier to come up in the search engines when your name is fairly unique.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Branding Advice.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are starting a business in Alexandria, it's imperative that you check now that you will be the only Virginia company using the business name you have chosen.
Don't Skip the Business Plan
A business plan is essential to the health of your new business. Simply put, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Starting a business without a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
If you want more information on writing business plans, we recommend reading Business Plan Outsourcing. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in Virginia.
Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge
The best entrepreneurs know that they need to continually improve.
With your business being located in Alexandria, Virginia, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Virginia educational institutions. We also recommend you look into networking organizations for Alexandria entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
Most new Alexandria businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Alexandria and throughout the United States . We have a wealth of experience in business start-ups, financing, marketing, sales and more...and we've made all of our knowledge available to you.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Alexandria, Virginia
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Alexandria.
- Resources for Alexandria, Virginia Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Alexandria entrepreneurs.
- Virginia Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Virginia.
- Virginia Small Business Development Center - Virginia Small Business Development Centers offer professional business counseling, training and information resources to help grow and strengthen Virginia businesses.
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