North Carolina Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Raleigh, North Carolina
Thinking about starting a business in Raleigh, North Carolina? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Raleigh.
Raleigh, North Carolina Demographic Information
Raleigh has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Raleigh demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Raleigh.
Businesses
As a new Raleigh entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Raleigh 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
Should You Buy an Existing Raleigh Business?
We've created a useful website page for those who want to Buy a Business in North Carolina. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in Raleigh.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.
Naming the Business
A big decision when starting a company is choosing a company name. Believe it or not, choosing a good company name can be a big contributor to your business success.
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: Naming a Business.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are starting a business in Raleigh, it's very important that you make sure no other North Carolina company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Raleigh, North Carolina
It's very important that you form your business as a legal structure. Doing so will protect 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. A key decision is whether to form and S-Corp or a C-Corp, and you also must decide in which state you will incorporate. If you are starting a business in North Carolina, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in North Carolina. As it turns out, 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. To learn the fundamentals of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Company Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Raleigh, North Carolina, our information on Incorporating in North Carolina may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in North Carolina.
Raising Money for Your New Venture
Getting your Raleigh business the capital it needs to succeed is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. To obtain business financing, you will need to hear a lot of rejections before you finally find a funding solution that works for you.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as 504 Loans.
For Raleigh entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of North Carolina Angel Investors and our List of North Carolina Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Business
To grow your Raleigh business, you need a solid marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Print Advertising Costs is a good read to get your marketing creativity flowing. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Bring in Revenues
Being able to sell is a key enabler to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Raleigh or are selling to customers throughout North Carolina, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
So what does it take to bring in more prospects and close more business? Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.
Hiring Telemarketing Firms to Generate Sales Leads is worth reading, as it may give you some good ideas on how to sell your products or services. We have many more good articles on selling that you may enjoy reading.
Now It's Up To You
You have a dream -- starting a business in Raleigh. 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 Raleigh 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 Raleigh, North Carolina
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Raleigh.
- Resources for Raleigh, North Carolina Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Raleigh entrepreneurs.
- North Carolina Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in North Carolina.
- North Carolina SBA - With offices in Charlotte, Wilmington, Raleigh and Asheville, the SBA organizes many events and provides useful resources for new entrepreneurs and growing businesses throughout North Carolina.
More Business Startup Guides for North Carolina
Starting a Business in Raeford
Starting a Business in Red Springs
Browse All Business Startup Guides for North Carolina
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs