Michigan Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Decatur, Michigan
Thinking about starting a business in Decatur, Michigan? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Decatur.
What Business Are You Starting?
An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at Free Business Ideas.
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 Teddy Bears Business guide or our Opening a Televisions Service & Repair Business guide.
Don't forget that starting a business in Decatur has some implications. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Decatur. Don't forget to review Decatur demographics to see if there's a market for what you want to sell.
Decatur, Michigan Demographic Information
Decatur has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Decatur demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Decatur.
Businesses
As a new Decatur entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Decatur 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
Choosing a Business Name
A big decision when starting a company is choosing a company name. Believe it or not, choosing a good company name can be a big contributor to your business success.
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.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Branding Advice.
On a final note, given that you are starting a business in Decatur, it's very important that you make sure no Michigan company has already registered the company name you have selected.
Company Formation in Decatur, Michigan
A critical step is ensuring that you are forming a legal entity that operates independently from you. Doing so will shield you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.
When forming a company, you will pick from many company types, such as a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
Incorporating is a very popular way to form a business. 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. Just because you are starting a business in Michigan, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in Michigan. In fact, you can incorporate in the state of your choosing. However, if you do incorporate in another state, you'll have to register as a foreign corporation in your home state.
There's a lot to know about forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Incorporating Online. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Decatur, Michigan, our web page covering Incorporating in Michigan may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Michigan.
Promoting Your New Company
To grow your Decatur business, you need a solid marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Television Advertising Rates is a good read to get your marketing thoughts flowing. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Bring in Revenues
Being able to sell is critical to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Decatur or are selling to customers throughout Michigan, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
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.
Writing Great Proposals 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.
Next Steps
You have a dream -- starting a business in Decatur. 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.
We are here to help Decatur 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 Decatur, Michigan
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Decatur.
- Resources for Decatur, Michigan Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Decatur entrepreneurs.
- Michigan Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Michigan.
- Michigan Small Business Development Center - This organization supports 12 regional offices and over 30 satellite offices, each providing counseling and training to Michigan small business owners and entrepreneurs throughout the 83 counties in Michigan. Services to entrepreneurs are offered through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
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