North Carolina Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Asheville, North Carolina
Are you starting a business in Asheville, North Carolina? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Asheville.
Choosing the Right Company to Start
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? If you are struggling with what type of business to start, read Good Business Ideas.
For step-by-step instructions on starting a variety of business types, visit the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Opening an Accounts Receivable Loan Business guide or our Opening a Carrying Cases Wholesale & Manufacturers Business guide.
Always keep in mind that you are opening your new business in Asheville. Some businesses will do better in Asheville than others. Study Asheville demographics and do a competitive analysis as part of your startup planning process.
Asheville, North Carolina Demographic Information
Asheville has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Asheville demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Asheville.
Businesses
As a new Asheville entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Asheville 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
Forming a Company in Asheville, North Carolina
It's very important that you form your business as a legal structure. The principal advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.
When forming a company, you will pick from many company types, such as a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.
Incorporating is a very popular way to form a business. Of course, you have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate. If you are starting a business in North Carolina, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in North Carolina. In fact, you can incorporate in any state you would like to. For example, it's very popular to incorporate in Delaware, and incorporating in Nevada has become very trendy as well. Don't forget, though, that you will have to register as a foreign entity in all states that you do business in.
There are many nuances to forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Avoiding Personal Liability in Business. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Asheville, North Carolina, our web page covering Incorporating in North Carolina may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in North Carolina.
Do You Need a Business Plan?
A business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. 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.
Before you start writing a business plan, we suggest you skim Free Business Plan Templates. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in North Carolina.
Marketing Your New Venture
To grow your Asheville business, you need a excellent marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Advertising Campaigns discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge
Successful entrepreneurs recognize that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.
Given that you are starting a business in Asheville, North Carolina, you should get information on some of the learning programs at local North Carolina educational institutions. Another way to keep up on your learning is to investigate networking organizations for Asheville entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
Most new Asheville businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Asheville and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Asheville, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Asheville, North Carolina
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Asheville.
- Resources for Asheville, North Carolina Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Asheville entrepreneurs.
- North Carolina Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in North Carolina.
- North Carolina SBA - With offices in Charlotte, Wilmington, Raleigh and Asheville, the SBA organizes many events and provides useful resources for new entrepreneurs and growing businesses throughout North Carolina.
More Startup Articles for North Carolina Cities
Starting a Business in Asheboro
Starting a Business in Belhaven
Browse All Business Startup Guides for North Carolina
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs