Massachusetts Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Are you starting a business in Charlestown, Massachusetts? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Charlestown.
What Type of Business Should You Start?
Choosing a business that is right for you is very important. We recommend that you read 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 Starting a Dance Club guide or our Starting a Tatoo Parlor guide.
Always keep in mind that you are starting a business in Charlestown. Some businesses will do better in Charlestown than others. Make sure you fully understand Charlestown demographics before you lock in on your business idea.
Charlestown, Massachusetts Demographic Information
Charlestown has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Charlestown demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Charlestown.
Businesses
As a new Charlestown entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Charlestown 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?
Visit the business district of Charlestown and you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. Is franchising maybe a better way for you to start your business?
We advise the entrepreneurs we work with to evaluate the possibility of your buying a franchise opportunity. To help you learn more about franchising, we've gathered a ton of articles on franchising, including Staffing a Franchise. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
You can review hundreds of franchise opportunities by browing our Franchise Directory.
Representative franchise opportunities include Subway Franchises and Starbucks Franchises. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Accounting Franchises and Moving Franchises.
Note on Charlestown Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Charlestown.
Forming a Company in Charlestown, Massachusetts
It's essential that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Doing so will shield you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
Incorporating is a very common way to legally create a business entity. A key decision is whether to form and S-Corp or a C-Corp, and you also must decide in which state you will incorporate. If you are starting a business in Massachusetts, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Massachusetts. As it turns out, you are allowed to incorporate in any state you would like to. However, if you do incorporate in another state, you'll have to register as a foreign corporation in your home state.
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 Offshore Company Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Charlestown, Massachusetts, our information on Incorporating in Massachusetts may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Massachusetts.
Raising Capital for Your Startup
Finding the funds to fuel the growth of your Charlestown business is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. In fact, financing your new business may be the hardest challenge you ever face.
Take advantage of our many articles on securing funding, such as SBIR Funding.
For Charlestown entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Massachusetts Angel Investors and our List of Massachusetts Venture Capital Firms.
Building Up Your Sales
Being able to sell is a key enabler to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Charlestown or are selling to customers throughout Massachusetts, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
So what does it take to bring in more prospects and close more business? The good news is we can help you to make selling a big competitve advantage for your new firm.
Closing Sales Techniques 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.
Moving Forward
You have a dream -- starting a business in Charlestown. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Charlestown and elsewhere to achieve real success. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Charlestown, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Charlestown.
- Resources for Charlestown, Massachusetts Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Charlestown entrepreneurs.
- Massachusetts Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Massachusetts.
- Massachusetts Small Business Development Center - The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) Network provides one-to-one free comprehensive and confidential services focusing on, business growth and strategies, financing and loan assistance as well as strategic, marketing and operational analysis.
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