Illinois Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in Belleville, Illinois
Contemplating starting a business in Belleville, Illinois? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Belleville.
What Business to Start
An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to read Free Business Ideas.
To view an extensive list of business types, complete with startup instructions, spend some time in the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Opening a Commercial Wallpaper & Wallcoverings Installation Business guide or our Starting a Check Printing Business guide.
Remember that you are starting a business in Belleville. Think about what needs are currently being underserved in Belleville. Don't forget to review Belleville demographics to see if there's a market for what you want to sell.
Belleville, Illinois Demographic Information
Belleville has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Belleville demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Belleville.
Businesses
As a new Belleville entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Belleville 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
Should You Franchise?
Browse the Yellow Pages for Belleville and it becomes clear that purchasing a franchise is a common way to get started as an entrepreneur. Should you be giving franchising serious consideration?
Our advice is to look into purchasing a franchise. We have many articles on franchises, such as How to Find Financing for Franchises. Gain a solid understanding of franchising by scanning all of our Articles on Franchising.
To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.
Sample franchise opportunities include The Steak Escape and Egismoz. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Auto Rental Franchises and Modeling Franchises.
Note on Belleville Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Belleville.
The Role of the Business Plan
Writing a business plan is vital to the health of your new business. Simply put, a business plan describes what you plan to do with the business and how you plan to do it. Starting a business without a business plan will greatly reduce your chances of business success.
Before you start writing a business plan, we suggest you skim Business Plan Contests. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in Illinois.
Getting Money to Start a Business
Getting your Belleville business the capital it needs to succeed will be harder than you might expect. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.
Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled 504 Loans.
For Belleville entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, you'll want to take a look at our List of Illinois Angel Investors and our List of Illinois Venture Capital Firms.
Selling Tips
Mastering the art of selling is priority one if you want your new Belleville business to do well.
Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Sales Training is worth reading, as it may give you some good ideas on how to sell your products or services. We have many more good articles on selling that you may enjoy reading.
Now It's Up To You
Most new Belleville businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Belleville and elsewhere to achieve real success. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Belleville, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Belleville, Illinois
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Belleville.
- Resources for Belleville, Illinois Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Belleville entrepreneurs.
- Illinois Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Illinois.
- Illinois Small Business Development Center - Illinois Small Business Development Centers located throughout the state provide assistance to new and existing small businesses.
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