Illinois Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in Northbrook, Illinois
Contemplating starting a business in Northbrook, Illinois? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Northbrook.
What Business Are You Starting?
An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. If you are struggling with what type of business to start, read Free 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 Carpet Installation Business guide or our Starting a Grain Elevators Service & Repair Business guide.
Always keep in mind that you are starting a business in Northbrook. Some businesses will do better in Northbrook than others. A critical consideration is whether Northbrook demographics mesh well with your startup concept.
Northbrook, Illinois Demographic Information
Northbrook has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Northbrook demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Northbrook.
Businesses
As a new Northbrook entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Northbrook 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 Northbrook Business?
We've created a helpful website page for those who want to Buy a Business in Illinois. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in Northbrook.
If you are serious about buying a business, you may want to read this article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.
Naming the Company
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.
Companies like Starbucks, Apple, Target, Microsoft and Intuit all have strong company names that are easy to remember and have become well-loved brands. Wouldn't it be nice if your new company name got on a similar track?
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Naming a Business.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are planning on starting a business in Northbrook, it's very important that you make sure no other Illinois company is using the business name you want to use.
Where to Get Money to Start a Company
Getting your Northbrook business the capital it needs to succeed is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as 504 Loans.
For Northbrook entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, we have assembled a List of Illinois Angel Investors and our List of Illinois Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Startup
To rise above the crowd in Northbrook and build your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your successs.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Billboard Advertising Best Practices is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Northbrook Entrepreneur Interviews
Here, we'll keep a running list of interviews we've had with Northbrook entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
You have a dream -- starting a business in Northbrook. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Northbrook businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Northbrook, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Northbrook, Illinois
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Northbrook.
- Resources for Northbrook, Illinois Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Northbrook entrepreneurs.
- Illinois Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Illinois.
- Illinois Small Business Development Center - Illinois Small Business Development Centers located throughout the state provide assistance to new and existing small businesses.
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