California Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in San Bernardino, California
Are you starting a business in San Bernardino, California? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in San Bernardino.
What Business to Start
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 Good Business Ideas.
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 Opening an Engineering Surveys Business guide or our Opening a Fencing Instruction Business guide.
Always keep in mind that starting a business in San Bernardino has some implications. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in San Bernardino. Don't forget to review San Bernardino demographics to see if there's a market for what you want to sell.
San Bernardino, California Demographic Information
San Bernardino has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for San Bernardino demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in San Bernardino.
Businesses
As a new San Bernardino entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in San Bernardino 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
Choosing a Company Name
A good company name can give a big boost to a new startup. It might seem like an easy thing to do, but there are many things to consider when naming a business.
Pick a company name that isn't too generic. If you do a search engine search for your proposed name and a billion results come up, you may want to reconsider the name. It's much easier to come up in the search engines when your name is fairly unique.
Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Business.
On a final note, given that you are planning on starting a business in San Bernardino, it's critical that you ensure that no other California company is using the business name you want to use.
Do You Need a Business Plan?
A business plan is essential in laying a solid foundation for your business success. In effect, 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.
If you want more information on writing business plans, we recommend reading Business Plan Contests. You should also take advantage of free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in California.
Raising Money for Your New Venture
Getting your San Bernardino business the capital it needs to succeed will be harder than you might expect. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled How Much Venture Capital Is There?.
For San Bernardino entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, check out our List of California Angel Investors and our List of California Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Venture
To grow your San Bernardino business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your succeeding.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Avoiding Bad Product Launches is an article that will generate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Building Up Your Sales
Do you know how to sell? In order to attract customers to your new San Bernardino business, you need to focus on sales.
Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.
Selling with Questions offers some helpful tips on how to sell. It's one of several good articles on our site regarding Entrepreneurial Selling.
What's Next?
As an entrepreneur in San Bernardino, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in San Bernardino.
- Resources for San Bernardino, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist San Bernardino entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
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