Georgia Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Savannah, Georgia
Are you starting a business in Savannah, Georgia? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Savannah.
Are You Sure You Want to Do This?
Most new businesses fail, in part because the entrepreneur did not have the tenacity and/or the skills to succeed. So, before jumping into the world of entrepreneurship, 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:
- Speak with other entrepreneurs in Savannah. Ask them candidly what it's like to run a business.
- 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. The people who know you best are often in the best position to tell you bluntly whether you will be a good entrepreneur.
Savannah, Georgia Demographic Information
Savannah has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Savannah demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Savannah.
Businesses
As a new Savannah entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Savannah 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 Savannah Business?
If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in Georgia. Follow that link and you might discover several good businesses for sale in Savannah.
For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.
Naming the Business
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.
We strongly advocate that you make sure the ".com" domain name is available for your company name. Every business needs a strong Web presence these days, and having a non ".com" domain means somebody else may outrank you in the search results for your own company name.
Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Business.
On a final note, given that you are opening a business in Savannah, it's imperative that you check now that no Georgia company has already registered the company name you have selected.
The Role of the Business Plan
A business plan is vital in maximizing the prospects of your new company. Indeed, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Starting a business without a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
Before you start writing a business plan, we suggest you skim 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 Georgia.
Marketing Your New Business
To grow your Savannah business, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Working with an Advertising Agency 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 sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Next Steps
Most new Savannah businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Savannah 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 Savannah, Georgia
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Savannah.
- Resources for Savannah, Georgia Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Savannah entrepreneurs.
- Georgia Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Georgia.
- Georgia Small Business Development Center - The Georgia SBDC program helps Georgia entrepreneurs with developing business plans, providing financial analysis, identifying sources of capital, and assessing marketing strategies.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in Georgia
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