West Virginia Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Wheeling, West Virginia
Thinking about starting a business in Wheeling, West Virginia? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Wheeling.
Do You Have Entrepreneurial Drive and Passion?
An entrepreneurial life is demanding, much more arduous than working as an employee. Are you positive you have the stamina and skills to succeed on your own?
To determine whether you have what it takes to run a business, we recommend these three steps to help you decide:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Wheeling. 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.
What Type of Business Should You Start?
Choosing a business that is right for you is very important. To stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at Business Ideas That Don't Make Sense.
For in-depth how-to guides on how to start specific businesses, browse our Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our How to Start a Helicopter Dealers Business guide or our Opening a Shake Roofing Maintenance & Repair Business guide.
Don't forget that you are starting a business in Wheeling. If Wheeling already has plenty of the kind of business you want to start, you might want to change your plans. Study Wheeling demographics and do a competitive analysis as part of your startup planning process.
Wheeling, West Virginia Demographic Information
Wheeling has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Wheeling demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Wheeling.
Businesses
As a new Wheeling entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Wheeling 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
Is Franchising a Better Option?
As you drive around Wheeling, you'll see that franchises make up a large percentage of local businesses. But is franchising the right option for you?
We advise the entrepreneurs we work with to investigate buying a franchise. This site has dozens of articles on franchising, such as Selling A Franchise. Get a thorough education on franchising by browsing all of our Articles on Franchising.
To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.
Representative franchise opportunities include United Marketing Solutions and Children's Lighthouse Learning Centers. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Business Services Franchises and Child Education and Tutoring Franchises.
Note on Wheeling Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Wheeling.
The Role of the Business Plan
A business plan is vital in maximizing the prospects of your new company. Simply put, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Failure to write a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
If you want more information on writing business plans, we recommend reading Reasons to Write a Business Plan. You should also take advantage of free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in West Virginia.
Startup Financing Basics
Getting your Wheeling business the capital it needs to succeed is not an easy task. To obtain business financing, you will need to hear a lot of rejections before you finally find a funding solution that works for you.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Getting a Small Business Loan.
For Wheeling entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, you'll want to take a look at our List of West Virginia Angel Investors and our List of West Virginia Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Venture
Whether your goal is to attract Wheeling customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Facebook Advertising is an article that will generate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Now It's Up To You
As an entrepreneur in Wheeling, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Wheeling businesses to be successful. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Wheeling entrepreneur who is just getting started or you are already up and running with your new venture.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Wheeling, West Virginia
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Wheeling.
- Resources for Wheeling, West Virginia Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Wheeling entrepreneurs.
- West Virginia Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in West Virginia.
- West Virginia Small Business Development Center - The West Virginia Small Business Development Center (WVSBDC) promotes economic development through a program of practical, interrelated services, providing assistance to existing West Virginia small businesses and the emerging West Virginia entrepreneur.
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