Arkansas Business Startup Guides

Opening a Business in Smackover, Arkansas

Contemplating starting a business in Smackover, Arkansas? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Smackover.

Do You Have Entrepreneurial Drive and Passion?

Most new businesses fail, in part because the entrepreneur did not have the entrepreneurial skills and traits needed to succeed. So, before jumping into the world of entrepreneurship, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.

With so much at stake when you start a business, we strongly recommend you do the following before you proceed:

  • Talk to other entrepreneurs in Smackover. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful 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. A support network of family and friends can be a great sounding board for good advice before you decide for sure to go into business.

Smackover, Arkansas Demographic Information

Smackover has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.

To give you a better feel for Smackover demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Smackover.

Business Size
# of
Businesses
1-4 Employees
171
5-9 Employees
63
10-19 Employees
27
20-49 Employees
9
50-99 Employees
0
100-249 Employees
3
250-499 Employees
0
500-999 Employees
0
1000+ Employees
0
All Smackover Businesses
273

As a new Smackover entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Smackover 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.

Business Type
# of
Businesses
Beauty Salons
1
Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services
1
Civic and Social Organizations
1
Drilling Oil and Gas Wells
2
Electrical Contractors
2
Exterminating and Pest Control Services
1
General Automotive Repair
1
General Warehousing and Storage
1
Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Stores
1
Golf Courses and Country Clubs
1
Hardware Stores
1
Industrial Mold Manufacturing
1
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
1
Landscaping Services
1
Limited-Service Restaurants
1
Logging
2
Machine Shops
3
Motorcycle Dealers
1
New Car Dealers
2
Offices of Certified Public Accountants
1
Pharmacies and Drug Stores
1
Site Preparation Contractors
2
Tire Dealers
1
Used Car Dealers
1

Don't Forget to Create a Business Plan

A business plan is vital to the health of your new business. Simply put, 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 The Art of the Executive Summary. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in Arkansas.

Startup Financing Basics

Raising money to fund your new Smackover business is a difficult chore. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.

Take advantage of our many articles on securing funding, such as 504 Loans.

For Smackover entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, browse our List of Arkansas Angel Investors and our List of Arkansas Venture Capital Firms.

Marketing Your New Venture

To rise above the crowd in Smackover and build your business, you need a excellent marketing plan.

There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Music on Hold 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 business owners recognize that they don't know everything.

Given that you are starting a business in Smackover, Arkansas, you should check out some of the learning programs at local Arkansas educational institutions. You should also check if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Smackover entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

Now It's Up To You

Most new Smackover businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.

If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.

Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Smackover and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Smackover, neighborhood development and overall economic health.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Smackover, Arkansas

Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Smackover.

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