New York Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Rochester, New York
Thinking about starting a business in Rochester, New York? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Rochester.
Are You Ready for Entrepreneurship?
Most startup ventures do not succeed, in part because the entrepreneur did not have the tenacity and/or the skills to succeed. So, before you start your business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Speak with other entrepreneurs in Rochester. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
- You should read Starting a Company. It's a good read for those who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.
- Talk it over with a close friend or partner. Ask them directly: Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Listen carefully to their answer, as they presumably know your strengths and weaknesses.
Rochester, New York Demographic Information
Rochester has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Rochester demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Rochester.
Businesses
As a new Rochester entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Rochester 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 Rochester Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in New York. Follow that link and you might discover several good businesses for sale in Rochester.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: How to Buy a Business.
Forming a Company in Rochester, New York
It's essential that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. The principal advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
Incorporation 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 New York, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in New York. In fact, you are allowed to 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 basics of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Where to Incorporate. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Rochester, New York, our information on Incorporating in New York may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in New York.
Promoting Your New Company
To grow your Rochester business, you need a excellent marketing plan.
You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Technology Marketing 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 entrepreneurs recognize that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.
Given that you are starting a business in Rochester, New York, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local New York educational institutions. We also suggest you look into networking groups or organizations in which Rochester entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
Interviews With Rochester Entrepreneurs
Here, we'll keep a running list of interviews we've had with Rochester entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
Most new Rochester businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Rochester 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 Rochester, New York
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Rochester.
- Resources for Rochester, New York Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Rochester 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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