New York Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Lewiston, New York
Thinking about starting a business in Lewiston, New York? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Lewiston.
Is Becoming an Entrepreneur Right for You?
Before announcing to the world that you are going to start your own business, consider your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Lewiston. Get their take on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
- We recommend reading Why Small Businesses Fail. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. 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?
Choosing a business that is right for you is very important. 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 a Sealers Business guide or our How to Start a Shoji Panels & Decorative Screens Business guide.
Always keep in mind that you are starting a business in Lewiston. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Lewiston. A critical consideration is whether Lewiston demographics mesh well with your startup concept.
Lewiston, New York 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
Forming a Company in Lewiston, New York
It's essential that you are forming a legal entity that operates independently from you. Doing so will shield you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
Incorporating 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 New York, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in New York. In fact, you can incorporate wherever you want. 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 ESOP Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Lewiston, New York, our information on Incorporating in New York may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in New York.
Marketing Your New Company
To rise above the crowd in Lewiston and build your business, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. PR Versus Advertising is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Building Up Your Sales
Being able to sell is fundamental to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Lewiston or are selling to customers throughout New York, 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. The good news is we can help you to make selling a big competitve advantage for your new firm.
Landing Big Customers offers some helpful tips on how to sell. It's one of several good articles on our site regarding Entrepreneurial Selling.
Learning More About Entrepreneurship
The best business owners recognize that they don't know everything.
As an entrepreneur who lives in Lewiston, New York, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby New York universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also smart to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Lewiston entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
Moving Forward
You have a dream -- starting a business in Lewiston. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Lewiston and elsewhere to achieve real success. 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, New York
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Lewiston.
- Resources for Lewiston, New York Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Lewiston entrepreneurs.
- New York Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in New York.
- New York Small Business Development Center - The New York State Small Business Development Center delivers high quality business counseling and training to New Yorkers who want to start a business or improve the performance of an existing business.
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