Pennsylvania Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Bradford, Pennsylvania
Thinking about starting a business in Bradford, Pennsylvania? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Bradford.
What Business to Start
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? To stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at How to Evaluate a Business Idea.
For in-depth how-to guides on how to start specific businesses, browse our Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Opening a Health Facilities Developers Business guide or our Opening a Picture Frames Wholesale & Manufacturers Business guide.
Always keep in mind that your new startup will be located in Bradford. Some businesses will do better in Bradford than others. Make sure you fully understand Bradford demographics before you lock in on your business idea.
Bradford, Pennsylvania Demographic Information
Bradford has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Bradford demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Bradford.
Businesses
As a new Bradford entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Bradford 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
Picking a Business 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.
We strongly advocate that you make sure the ".com" domain name is available for your company name. Every business needs a strong Web presence these days, and having a non ".com" domain means somebody else may outrank you in the search results for your own company name.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Naming a Company.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are starting a business in Bradford, it's imperative that you check now that no other Pennsylvania company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Bradford, Pennsylvania
A critical step is ensuring that you form your business as a legal structure. Doing so will separate you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.
The entity you form can be a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.
Incorporation 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 Pennsylvania, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Pennsylvania. As it turns out, you are allowed to incorporate in the state of your choosing. 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 may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Bradford, Pennsylvania, our information on Incorporating in Pennsylvania may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Pennsylvania.
Raising Money for Your New Venture
Getting your Bradford business the capital it needs to succeed is not an easy task. If you don't have a rich uncle to fund you, you'll need to be creative in how you approach your fundraising efforts.
Take advantage of our many articles on raising capital, such as Getting a Small Business Loan.
For Bradford entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, browse our List of Pennsylvania Angel Investors and our List of Pennsylvania Venture Capital Firms.
Ramping Up Sales
Mastering the art of selling is priority one if you want your new Bradford business to do well.
So what does it take to bring in more prospects and close more business? Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Hiring Telemarketing Firms to Generate Sales Leads is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.
Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
Successful entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
Given that you are starting a business in Bradford, Pennsylvania, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Pennsylvania universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also wise to see if there are any networking organizations for Bradford entrepreneurs.
What's Next?
Most new Bradford businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Bradford businesses to be successful. 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 Bradford, Pennsylvania
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Bradford.
- Resources for Bradford, Pennsylvania Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Bradford entrepreneurs.
- Pennsylvania Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center - Pennsylvania SBDCs help aspiring entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses, help small firms expand, and provide the information every business person needs to make critical decisions. There is no charge for their assistance and their free help can make the difference between business success and failure.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in Pennsylvania
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Starting a Business in Bristol
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