California Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Lakewood, California
Thinking about starting a business in Lakewood, California? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Lakewood.
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 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 Night Clubs Business guide or our Opening a Tennis Courts Business guide.
Remember that Lakewood is the place where you are starting a business. If Lakewood 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 Lakewood demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Lakewood, California Demographic Information
Lakewood has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Lakewood demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Lakewood.
Businesses
As a new Lakewood entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Lakewood 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 Lakewood Business?
If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in California. Follow that link and you may find several good businesses for sale in Lakewood.
If you are serious about buying a business, you may want to read this article: How to Buy a Business.
Don't Skip the Business Plan
Having a business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Simply put, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Not having a business plan makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.
If writing a business plan is on your to-do list, be sure to read Business Plan Contests. You should also take advantage of free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in California.
Where to Get Money to Start a Company
Getting your Lakewood business the capital it needs to succeed is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. In fact, financing your new business may be the hardest challenge you ever face.
Recognizing this challenge, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled How Equity Dilution Works.
For Lakewood entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, check out our List of California Angel Investors and our List of California Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Venture
To grow your Lakewood business, you need a great marketing plan.
We have some excellent resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Competitive Analysis is an article that will generate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
Good entrepreneurs know that they don't know everything.
With your business being located in Lakewood, California, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local California educational institutions. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking organizations for Lakewood entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
As an entrepreneur in Lakewood, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Lakewood and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Lakewood, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Lakewood, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Lakewood.
- Resources for Lakewood, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Lakewood entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in California
Starting a Business in Lakeport
Starting a Business in Lamont
Browse All Business Startup Guides for California
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs