North Dakota Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Thinking about starting a business in Grand Forks, North Dakota? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Grand Forks.
What Business to Start
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 Good 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 an Experimental Machine Shops Business guide or our Opening a Management Accountants Business guide.
Don't forget that your new startup will be located in Grand Forks. If Grand Forks already has plenty of the kind of business you want to start, you might want to change your plans. Make sure you fully understand Grand Forks demographics before you lock in on your business idea.
Grand Forks, North Dakota Demographic Information
Grand Forks has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Grand Forks demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Grand Forks.
Businesses
As a new Grand Forks entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Grand Forks 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
Should You Franchise?
Browse the Yellow Pages for Grand Forks and it's apparent that franchising has become a very popular way to start a business. Evidently, there must be some significant advantages to purchasing a franchise.
We highly recommend you consider franchising as an option. On our site, you can read many articles about franchising, such as Franchise Marketing Support. Get a thorough education on franchising by browsing all of our Articles on Franchising.
A comprehensive list of franchisors is available via our List of Franchise Opportunities.
Sample franchise opportunities include Slim and Tone and Mighty Distributing System. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Auto Repair Franchises and Print and Sign Franchises.
Note on Grand Forks Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Grand Forks.
Is Buying an Existing Grand Forks Business a Good Strategy?
If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in North Dakota. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in Grand Forks.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.
Selecting a Name For Your Venture
A good company name can give a big boost to a new startup. It might seem like an easy thing to do, but there are many things to consider when naming a business.
Company names should be fun to say, and they should help people to understand what you do and how you differentiate yourself in the market.
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 planning on starting a business in Grand Forks, it's critical that you ensure that your company name has not already been claimed by another North Dakota business.
Getting Money to Start a Business
Raising money to fund your new Grand Forks business is not an easy task. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as 504 Loans.
For Grand Forks entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, check out our List of North Dakota Angel Investors and our List of North Dakota Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Venture
To rise above the crowd in Grand Forks and build your business, you need a great marketing plan.
You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Elevator Advertising is an article that will stimulate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Never Give Up
As an entrepreneur in Grand Forks, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
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 Grand Forks and elsewhere to achieve real success. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Grand Forks, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Grand Forks.
- Resources for Grand Forks, North Dakota Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Grand Forks entrepreneurs.
- North Dakota Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in North Dakota.
- North Dakota Small Business Development Center - The North Dakota Small Business Development Center's mission is to provide high quality business assistance in the form of counseling, training, and research to existing and prospective North Dakota small businesses.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in North Dakota
Starting a Business in Grafton
Starting a Business in Hankinson
Browse All Business Startup Guides for North Dakota
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs