Maine Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in Houlton, Maine
Contemplating starting a business in Houlton, Maine? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Houlton.
What Business to Start
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? 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 Opening an Electric Connectors Business guide or our How to Start a Linen Supply Services Business guide.
Always keep in mind that you are opening your new business in Houlton. Some businesses will do better in Houlton than others. Make sure you fully understand Houlton demographics before you lock in on your business idea.
Houlton, Maine Demographic Information
Houlton has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Houlton demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Houlton.
Businesses
As a new Houlton entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Houlton 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
Have You Considered Buying an Existing Houlton Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Maine. Follow that link and you can review several good businesses for sale in Houlton.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.
Naming the Business
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.
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.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Naming a Business.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are planning on starting a business in Houlton, it's imperative that you check now that no other Maine company is using the business name you want to use.
Don't Forget to Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. In effect, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Failure to write a business plan
To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Contests. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in Maine.
Letting the World Know You Exist
Whether your goal is to attract Houlton customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your doing well.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Typical Direct Mail Response Rates discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
How to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Abilities
Successful entrepreneurs recognize that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.
With your business being located in Houlton, Maine, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Maine educational institutions. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any Houlton networking organizations.
Now It's Up To You
Most new Houlton businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Houlton and elsewhere to achieve real success. 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 Houlton, Maine
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Houlton.
- Resources for Houlton, Maine Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Houlton entrepreneurs.
- Maine Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Maine.
- Maine Small Business Development Center - Maine Small Business Development Centers and its technology-focused group, the Maine Small Business & Technology Development Centers, provide comprehensive business management assistance, training, resource and information services to Maine's entrepreneurs and small business owners.
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