Minnesota Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Winona, Minnesota
Thinking about starting a business in Winona, Minnesota? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Winona.
Will You Be a Good Entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur is demanding, much harder than working as an employee. Are you positive you are ready to take on this challenge?
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Reach out to other entrepreneurs in Winona. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
- Peruse Should You Become an Entrepreneur?. This is one of our more popular articles for folks who want to go into business for themselves.
- Have a candid conversation with friends and family. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
What Type of Business Should You Start?
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? We recommend that you read Free Business Ideas.
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 Starting a CDs, Tapes, & Records Wholesaler or Manufacturing Business guide or our How to Start an Electronic Publishing Business guide.
Don't forget that your new business will be in Winona. Some businesses will do better in Winona than others. Make sure you fully understand Winona demographics before you lock in on your business idea.
Winona, Minnesota Demographic Information
Winona has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Winona demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Winona.
Businesses
As a new Winona entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Winona 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
Naming the Company
A big decision when starting a company is choosing a company name. Believe it or not, choosing a good company name can be a big contributor to your business success.
Company names should be fun to say, and they should help people to understand what you do and how you differentiate yourself in the market.
Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Business.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are planning on starting a business in Winona, it's critical that you ensure that no other Minnesota company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Winona, Minnesota
It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Among other things, forming a legal entity for the business limits your liabilities.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
Incorporating 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. If you are starting a business in Minnesota, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Minnesota. In fact, you can incorporate wherever you want. However, if you do incorporate in another state, you'll have to register as a foreign corporation in your home state.
There are many nuances to forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Pre-Incorporation Agreements. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Winona, Minnesota, our information on Incorporating in Minnesota may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Minnesota.
Startup Financing Basics
Getting your Winona business the capital it needs to succeed will be harder than you might expect. If you don't have a rich uncle to fund you, you'll need to be creative in how you approach your fundraising efforts.
Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Business Credit Evaluation.
For Winona entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, we have assembled a List of Minnesota Angel Investors and our List of Minnesota Venture Capital Firms.
Learning More About Entrepreneurship
Successful entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
As an entrepreneur who lives in Winona, Minnesota, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Minnesota educational institutions. It's also beneficial to see if there are any Winona networking organizations.
What's Next?
As an entrepreneur in Winona, 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.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Winona and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Winona, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Winona, Minnesota
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Winona.
- Resources for Winona, Minnesota Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Winona entrepreneurs.
- Minnesota Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Minnesota.
- Minnesota Small Business Development Center - The Minnesota Small Business Development Centers provide no-cost, professional business consulting to Minnesota small businesses covering a variety of business needs.
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