New York Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in Poughkeepsie, New York
Contemplating starting a business in Poughkeepsie, New York? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Poughkeepsie.
Are You Sure You Want to Do This?
Most new businesses fail, in part because the entrepreneur did not have the perseverance and abilities that are necessary to succeed. So, before you start your business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.
Because entrepreneurship is not for everyone, we recommend you do the following to help you assess whether you should move forward with starting a business:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Poughkeepsie. Ask them candidly what it's like to run a business.
- We recommend reading Should You Become an Entrepreneur?. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Have a candid conversation with friends and family. The people who know you best are often in the best position to tell you bluntly whether you will be a good entrepreneur.
Poughkeepsie, New York Demographic Information
Poughkeepsie has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Poughkeepsie demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Poughkeepsie.
Businesses
As a new Poughkeepsie entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Poughkeepsie 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
The Role of the Business Plan
A business plan is critical in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Indeed, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Starting a business without a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
To learn more about business plans, read Free Business Plan Templates. A great resource for business planning assistance is the face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in New York.
Startup Financing Basics
Obtaining startup financing for your Poughkeepsie business is a difficult chore. If you don't have a rich uncle to fund you, you'll need to be creative in how you approach your fundraising efforts.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Choosing VC Firms.
For Poughkeepsie entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, you'll want to take a look at our List of New York Angel Investors and our List of New York Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Company
To rise above the crowd in Poughkeepsie and accelerate your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your beating the competition.
We have some helpful resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Yellow Pages Advertising Advice discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
Good entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
With your business being located in Poughkeepsie, New York, you should investigate some of the many programs available at nearby New York universities, colleges and community colleges. Another way to keep up on your learning is to investigate networking organizations for Poughkeepsie entrepreneurs.
Next Steps
Most new Poughkeepsie businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
We are here to help Poughkeepsie businesses to be successful. 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 Poughkeepsie, New York
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Poughkeepsie.
- Resources for Poughkeepsie, New York Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Poughkeepsie 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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