Maine Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Lewiston, Maine
Thinking about starting a business in Lewiston, Maine? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Lewiston.
What Business 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 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 Starting a Food Service Industrial Business guide or our How to Start a Motorcycle & Motor Scooter Rental Business guide.
Don't forget that starting a business in Lewiston has some implications. If Lewiston already has plenty of the kind of business you want to start, you might want to change your plans. A critical consideration is whether Lewiston demographics mesh well with your startup concept.
Lewiston, Maine Demographic Information
Lewiston has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Lewiston demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Lewiston.
Businesses
As a new Lewiston entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Lewiston 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 Lewiston Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Maine. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in Lewiston.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.
Make Sure You Have a Business Plan
Writing a business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Indeed, a business plan describes what you plan to do with the business and how you plan to do it. Not having a business plan will greatly reduce your chances of business success.
To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Contests. You can also get face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Maine.
Letting the World Know You Exist
Whether your goal is to attract Lewiston customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you need a solid marketing plan.
We have some helpful resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Avoiding Bad Product Launches is a good read to get your marketing ideas flowing. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Selling Tips
Being able to sell is a key enabler to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Lewiston or are selling to customers throughout Maine, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
The Art of Customer Referrals offers some helpful tips on how to sell. It's one of several good articles on our site regarding Entrepreneurial Selling.
Next Steps
You have a dream -- starting a business in Lewiston. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Lewiston and throughout the United States . We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Lewiston entrepreneur who is just getting started or you are already up and running with your new venture.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Lewiston, Maine
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Lewiston.
- Resources for Lewiston, Maine Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Lewiston 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.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in Maine
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Starting a Business in Lincoln
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