California Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Davis, California
Thinking about starting a business in Davis, California? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Davis.
Are You Ready for Life as an Owner?
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 Davis. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
- 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. 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.
Davis, California Demographic Information
Davis has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Davis demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Davis.
Businesses
As a new Davis entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Davis 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 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.
Company names need to be easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and easy to remember.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Naming a Company.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are opening a business in Davis, it's very important that you make sure no other California company is using the business name you want to use.
Raising Money for Your New Venture
Getting your Davis business the capital it needs to succeed is a difficult chore. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
Take advantage of our many articles on raising capital, such as 504 Loans.
For Davis entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, we have assembled a List of California Angel Investors and our List of California Venture Capital Firms.
Building Up Your Sales
Being able to sell is essential to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Davis or are selling to customers throughout California, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
The key to selling is to set sales goals goals and monitor your progress towards those goals. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Tips on Customer Referrals 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.
Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge
Good entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
With your business being located in Davis, California, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby California universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any Davis networking organizations.
Never Give Up
You have a dream -- starting a business in Davis. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
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 Davis and throughout the United States . 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 Davis, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Davis.
- Resources for Davis, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Davis entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
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