Iowa Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Bedford, Iowa
Thinking about starting a business in Bedford, Iowa? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Bedford.
Are You Ready for the Challenges of Being an Entrepreneur?
Before quitting your day job, assess your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
Here are three things we recommend you do before you fully commit to starting a new business of your own.
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Bedford. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
- We recommend reading Why Small Businesses Fail. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. Ask them directly: Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Listen carefully to their answer, as they presumably know your strengths and weaknesses.
Bedford, Iowa Demographic Information
Bedford has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Bedford demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Bedford.
Businesses
As a new Bedford entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Bedford 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
What About Franchising Opportunities?
As you drive around Bedford, you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. But is franchising the right option for you?
Our advice is to consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as Opportunities in International Franchising. 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.
Representative franchise opportunities include Schakolad Chocolate Factory and Baja Fresh Mexican Grill. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Healthcare Franchises and Miscellaneous Franchises.
Note on Bedford Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Bedford.
Selecting a Name For Your Venture
Making the right decision when choosing a company name is very important. There are many decisions you'll make now that you can change later, but changing a company name years down the road is not very easy. So, choose a good company name at the outset.
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.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Branding Advice.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are starting a business in Bedford, it's very important that you make sure no other Iowa company is using the business name you want to use.
Raising Money for Your Venture
Getting your Bedford business the capital it needs to succeed is not an easy task. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Attracting Investors.
For Bedford entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, you'll want to take a look at our List of Iowa Angel Investors and our List of Iowa Venture Capital Firms.
Getting the Word Out About Your New Company
To rise above the crowd in Bedford and build your business, you need a solid marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Advertising on Google is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Never Give Up
You have a dream -- starting a business in Bedford. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Bedford and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Bedford, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Bedford, Iowa
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Bedford.
- Resources for Bedford, Iowa Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Bedford entrepreneurs.
- Iowa Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Iowa.
- Iowa Small Business Development Center - The Iowa SBDC conducts research, counsels, and trains business people in management, financing, and operating small businesses. They provide comprehensive information services and access to experts in a variety of fields. This is a great resource for Iowa entrepreneurs!
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