Minnesota Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Long Prairie, Minnesota
Thinking about starting a business in Long Prairie, Minnesota? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Long Prairie.
Will You Be a Successful Entrepreneur?
Most new businesses fail, in part because the entrepreneur did not have the entrepreneurial skills and traits needed to succeed. So, before you open a business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.
To determine whether you have what it takes to run a business, we recommend these three steps to help you decide:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Long Prairie. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being 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. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
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 step-by-step instructions on starting a variety of business types, visit the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our How to Start a Cushions Retail Business guide or our Opening an Encyclopedias Business guide.
Remember that your new business will be in Long Prairie. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Long Prairie. A critical consideration is whether Long Prairie demographics mesh well with your startup concept.
Long Prairie, Minnesota Demographic Information
Long Prairie has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Long Prairie demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Long Prairie.
Businesses
As a new Long Prairie entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Long Prairie 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
Make Sure You Have a Business Plan
A business plan is critical in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Simply put, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Starting a business without a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
If you want more information on writing business plans, we recommend reading Business Plan Contests. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in Minnesota.
Marketing Your New Startup
Whether your goal is to attract Long Prairie customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you need a excellent marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Advertising in Magazines discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
How to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Abilities
Good business owners know that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.
With your business being located in Long Prairie, Minnesota, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Minnesota educational institutions. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Long Prairie entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
What's Next?
Most new Long Prairie businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Long Prairie businesses to be successful. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Long Prairie 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 Long Prairie, Minnesota
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Long Prairie.
- Resources for Long Prairie, Minnesota Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Long Prairie entrepreneurs.
- Minnesota Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Minnesota.
- Minnesota Small Business Development Center - The Minnesota Small Business Development Centers provide no-cost, professional business consulting to Minnesota small businesses covering a variety of business needs.
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