Michigan Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in Indian River, Michigan
Contemplating starting a business in Indian River, Michigan? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Indian River.
Is Becoming an Entrepreneur Right for You?
Running your own business is difficult, much harder than working as an employee. Are you positive you want to start a business?
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Indian River. Get their take on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
- We recommend reading Should You Become an Entrepreneur?. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Have a candid conversation with friends and family. That's the best way to get a truly objective assessment as to whether others think you have what it takes.
What Business Are You Starting?
An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. You might get some good ideas about what kind of business to start by reading How to Evaluate a Business Idea.
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 Lithographers' Equipment & Supplies Business guide or our How to Start a Motorcycle & Motor Scooter Trails & Tracks Business guide.
Always keep in mind that you are opening your new business in Indian River. Some businesses will do better in Indian River than others. Only by spending some time analyzing Indian River demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Indian River, Michigan Demographic Information
Indian River has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Indian River demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Indian River.
Businesses
As a new Indian River entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Indian River 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
What About Franchising Opportunities?
Visit the business district of Indian River and you'll see that franchises make up a large percentage of local businesses. But is franchising the right option for you?
Our recommendation is that you consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as Buying an Existing Franchise. Get a thorough education on franchising by browsing all of our Articles on Franchising.
You can review hundreds of franchise opportunities by browing our Franchise Directory.
Sample franchise opportunities include Van Houtte Café and Kids 'N' Clay. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Wedding Franchises and Hardware Store Franchises.
Note on Indian River Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Indian River.
Naming the Business
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: Naming a Business.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are starting a business in Indian River, it's critical that you ensure that no Michigan company has already registered the company name you have selected.
Forming a Company in Indian River, Michigan
It's very important that you form your business as a legal structure. The primary advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal 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 common way to legally create a business entity. Of course, you have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate. If you are starting a business in Michigan, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Michigan. As it turns out, 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 are many nuances to forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Pre-Incorporation Agreements. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Indian River, Michigan, our web page covering Incorporating in Michigan may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Michigan.
Make Sure You Have a Business Plan
Having a business plan is vital to the health of your new business. In effect, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Starting a business without a business plan makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.
To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Software. You should also take advantage of free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in Michigan.
Moving Forward
As an entrepreneur in Indian River, 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.
We are here to help Indian River businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Indian River, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Indian River, Michigan
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Indian River.
- Resources for Indian River, Michigan Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Indian River 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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