Arkansas Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Little Rock, Arkansas
Are you starting a business in Little Rock, Arkansas? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Little Rock.
Will You Be a Successful Entrepreneur?
Before quitting your day job, take inventory of your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Reach out to other entrepreneurs in Little Rock. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
- 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. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
What Type of Business Should You 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 Opening a Cable, Conduit, and Poles Contractors Business guide or our Opening a Battery Rebuilding, Repairing, & Recharging Business guide.
Remember that starting a business in Little Rock has some implications. Some businesses will do better in Little Rock than others. Only by spending some time analyzing Little Rock demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Little Rock, Arkansas Demographic Information
Little Rock has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Little Rock demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Little Rock.
Businesses
As a new Little Rock entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Little Rock 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?
Examine a list of Little Rock businesses and you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. Is franchising maybe a better way for you to start your business?
Our advice is to investigate buying a franchise. We have many articles on franchises, such as The Franchising Process. 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 Epcon Communities and DUCTZ Duct Cleaning. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Construction Franchises and Home Services Franchises.
Note on Little Rock Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Little Rock.
Naming the Business
Making the right decision when choosing a company name is very important. There are many decisions you'll make now that you can change later, but changing a company name years down the road is not very easy. So, choose a good company name at the outset.
Company names should be fun to say, and they should help people to understand what you do and how you differentiate yourself in the market.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Branding Advice.
On a final note, given that you are starting a business in Little Rock, it's very important that you make sure no Arkansas company has already registered the company name you have selected.
Raising Capital for Your Venture
Obtaining startup financing for your Little Rock business will be harder than you might expect. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
Take advantage of our many articles on securing funding, such as Business Cash Advances.
For Little Rock entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Arkansas Angel Investors and our List of Arkansas Venture Capital Firms.
Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
Good entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
Given that you are starting a business in Little Rock, Arkansas, you should get information on some of the many programs available at nearby Arkansas universities, colleges and community colleges. Another way to keep up on your learning is to investigate networking groups or organizations in which Little Rock entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
What's Next?
You have a dream -- starting a business in Little Rock. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Little Rock and elsewhere to achieve real success. We have a wealth of experience in business start-ups, financing, marketing, sales and more...and we've made all of our knowledge available to you.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Little Rock, Arkansas
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Little Rock.
- Resources for Little Rock, Arkansas Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Little Rock entrepreneurs.
- Arkansas Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Arkansas.
- Arkansas Small Business Development Center - The Arkansas Small Business Development Center (ASBDC) is a University-based economic development program which provides assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout Arkansas via a statewide network of seven offices.
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