Virginia Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Wakefield, Virginia
Are you starting a business in Wakefield, Virginia? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Wakefield.
Is Becoming an Entrepreneur Right for You?
Before you get too far along in the process, consider your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
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:
- Reach out to other entrepreneurs in Wakefield. Get their take on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
- Peruse Why Small Businesses Fail. This is one of our more popular articles for folks who want to go into business for themselves.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. That's the best way to get a truly objective assessment as to whether others think you have what it takes.
Wakefield, Virginia Demographic Information
Wakefield has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Wakefield demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Wakefield.
Businesses
As a new Wakefield entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Wakefield 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
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.
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.
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 Wakefield, it's very important that you make sure no other Virginia company is using the business name you want to use.
Company Formation in Wakefield, Virginia
It's essential that you form your business as a legal structure. Doing so will insulate 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.
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. Just because you are starting a business in Virginia, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Virginia. In fact, you can incorporate in any state you would like to. However, if you do incorporate in another state, you'll have to register as a foreign corporation in your home state.
There's a lot to know about forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Nevada Incorporation. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Wakefield, Virginia, our information on Incorporating in Virginia may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Virginia.
Promoting Your New Company
To rise above the crowd in Wakefield and accelerate your business, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
You can learn a ton about marketing on our site. Marketing Versus Sales is a good read to get your marketing thoughts flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
How to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Abilities
The best entrepreneurs know that they don't know everything.
Given that you are starting a business in Wakefield, Virginia, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Virginia universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also beneficial to see if there are any Wakefield networking organizations.
Moving Forward
You have a dream -- starting a business in Wakefield. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Wakefield 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 Wakefield, Virginia
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Wakefield.
- Resources for Wakefield, Virginia Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Wakefield entrepreneurs.
- Virginia Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Virginia.
- Virginia Small Business Development Center - Virginia Small Business Development Centers offer professional business counseling, training and information resources to help grow and strengthen Virginia businesses.
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