Virginia Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Blacksburg, Virginia
Thinking about starting a business in Blacksburg, Virginia? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Blacksburg.
Do You Have What It Takes?
Running your own business is demanding, much more challenging than working as an employee. Are you positive you have the stamina and skills to succeed on your own?
With so much at stake when you start a business, we strongly recommend you do the following before you proceed:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Blacksburg. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful business.
- We recommend reading Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Seek the advice of somebody who knows you well. A support network of family and friends can be a great sounding board for good advice before you decide for sure to go into business.
Blacksburg, Virginia Demographic Information
Blacksburg has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Blacksburg demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Blacksburg.
Businesses
As a new Blacksburg entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Blacksburg 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 Buying an Existing Blacksburg Business?
If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in Virginia. Follow that link and you might discover several good businesses for sale in Blacksburg.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.
Choosing a Company Name
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.
Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Company.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are starting a business in Blacksburg, it's critical that you ensure that no other Virginia company is using the business name you want to use.
Startup Financing Basics
Getting your Blacksburg business the capital it needs to succeed is a difficult chore. In fact, financing your new business may be the hardest challenge you ever face.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as 504 Loans.
For Blacksburg entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, browse our List of Virginia Angel Investors and our List of Virginia Venture Capital Firms.
Letting the World Know You Exist
Whether your goal is to attract Blacksburg customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you need a great marketing plan.
We have some great resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Branding Advice is an article that will generate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge
Good entrepreneurs know that they don't know everything.
With your business being located in Blacksburg, Virginia, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Virginia universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also beneficial to see if there are any Blacksburg networking organizations.
Interviews With Blacksburg Entrepreneurs
We're compiling a number of interviews with Blacksburg entrepreneurs. Enjoy!
Now It's Up To You
As an entrepreneur in Blacksburg, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Blacksburg and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Blacksburg, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Blacksburg, Virginia
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Blacksburg.
- Resources for Blacksburg, Virginia Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Blacksburg 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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