Alabama Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Lafayette, Alabama
Thinking about starting a business in Lafayette, Alabama? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Lafayette.
Do You Have Entrepreneurial Drive and Passion?
Being an entrepreneur is demanding, much more challenging than working as an employee. Are you sure you have the stamina and skills to succeed on your own?
Before you move forward with starting a business, be sure to do these three things:
- Reach out to other entrepreneurs in Lafayette. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful business.
- Peruse Why Small Businesses Fail. This is one of our more popular articles for folks who want to go into business for themselves.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. A support network of family and friends can be a great sounding board for good advice before you decide for sure to go into business.
Choosing the Right Company to Start
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 Business Ideas That Don't Make Sense.
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 Dance Club guide or our Starting a Tatoo Parlor guide.
Don't forget that you are starting a business in Lafayette. Some businesses will do better in Lafayette than others. A critical consideration is whether Lafayette demographics mesh well with your startup concept.
Lafayette, Alabama Demographic Information
Lafayette has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Lafayette demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Lafayette.
Businesses
As a new Lafayette entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Lafayette 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 Lafayette, it's apparent that franchising has become a very popular way to start a business. Is franchising maybe a better way for you to start your business?
Our advice is to consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as Protecting Your Franchise Territory. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.
Sample franchise opportunities include Subway Franchises and Starbucks Franchises. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Accounting Franchises and Moving Franchises.
Note on Lafayette Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Lafayette.
Forming a Company in Lafayette, Alabama
It's essential that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Without a legal structure for the business, you can be held personally liable for the actions, debts and obligations of your company.
The entity you form can be a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.
Incorporation is a very popular way to form a business. Of course, you have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate. If you are starting a business in Alabama, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Alabama. In fact, you can incorporate in the state of your choosing. For example, it's very popular to incorporate in Delaware, and incorporating in Nevada has become very trendy as well. Don't forget, though, that you will have to register as a foreign entity in all states that you do business in.
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 Why Incorporate in Delaware. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Lafayette, Alabama, our information on Incorporating in Alabama may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Alabama.
Marketing Your New Business
Whether your goal is to attract Lafayette customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. How to Get Started with Advertsing is an article that will stimulate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Now It's Up To You
As an entrepreneur in Lafayette, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Lafayette businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Lafayette, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Lafayette, Alabama
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Lafayette.
- Resources for Lafayette, Alabama Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Lafayette entrepreneurs.
- Alabama Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Alabama.
- Alabama Small Business Development Center - Alabama's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) counsels and trains business people in a wide variety of business topics and provides comprehensive information services and access to experts in many fields. Counseling is provided free of charge to all Alabama small business owners.
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