North Carolina Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Hillsborough, North Carolina
Thinking about starting a business in Hillsborough, North Carolina? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Hillsborough.
Are You Sure You Want to Do This?
Before quitting your day job, assess your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Speak with other entrepreneurs in Hillsborough. Ask them candidly what it's like to run a business.
- You should read The Entrepreneurial Personality. It's a good read for those who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.
- Reach out to a trusted acquaintance. The people who know you best are often in the best position to tell you bluntly whether you will be a good entrepreneur.
What Business Are You Starting?
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? We recommend that you read Good Business Ideas.
If you still are not sure what type of business to start, peruse the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our How to Start a Marketing Consultants Business guide or our Starting a Medical & Infectious Waste Disposal Business guide.
Don't forget that you are opening your new business in Hillsborough. If Hillsborough already has plenty of the kind of business you want to start, you might want to change your plans. Only by spending some time analyzing Hillsborough demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Hillsborough, North Carolina Demographic Information
Hillsborough has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Hillsborough demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Hillsborough.
Businesses
As a new Hillsborough entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Hillsborough 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?
As you drive around Hillsborough, you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. Should you be giving franchising serious consideration?
Our advice is to consider franchising as an option. On our site, you can read many articles about franchising, such as Growth Trends in Franchising. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
A comprehensive list of franchisors is available via our List of Franchise Opportunities.
Representative franchise opportunities include Home Preservation Systems and CHIP The Remarkable Child I.D. Program. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Restaurant Services Franchises and Florist Franchises.
Note on Hillsborough Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Hillsborough.
Company Formation in Hillsborough, North Carolina
It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Among other things, forming a legal entity for the business limits your liabilities.
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 North Carolina, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in North Carolina. In fact, you can incorporate wherever you want. 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. To learn the fundamentals of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Getting an EIN. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Hillsborough, North Carolina, our web page covering Incorporating in North Carolina may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in North Carolina.
Bring in Revenues
Being able to sell is critical to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Hillsborough or are selling to customers throughout North Carolina, 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? Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.
Why Salespeople Fail 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.
Learning More About Entrepreneurship
Successful entrepreneurs know that they need to continually improve.
As an entrepreneur who lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, you should investigate some of the learning programs at local North Carolina educational institutions. Another way to keep up on your learning is to investigate networking groups or organizations in which Hillsborough entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
Next Steps
You have a dream -- starting a business in Hillsborough. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Hillsborough and elsewhere to achieve real success. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Hillsborough, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Hillsborough, North Carolina
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Hillsborough.
- Resources for Hillsborough, North Carolina Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Hillsborough entrepreneurs.
- North Carolina Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in North Carolina.
- North Carolina SBA - With offices in Charlotte, Wilmington, Raleigh and Asheville, the SBA organizes many events and provides useful resources for new entrepreneurs and growing businesses throughout North Carolina.
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