Start a Business in Burien, Washington

Thinking about starting a business in Burien, Washington? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Burien.

What Business Are You Starting?

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to read Good 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 How to Start a Credit & Debt Counseling Services Business guide or our How to Start a Cutlery Wholesale & Manufacturers Business guide.

Don't forget that you are opening your new business in Burien. Some businesses will do better in Burien than others. Make sure you fully understand Burien demographics before you lock in on your business idea.

Burien, Washington Demographic Information

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

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

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

Forming a Company in Burien, Washington

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. Of course, you have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate. If you are starting a business in Washington, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Washington. In fact, you can incorporate in the state of your choosing. 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 Where to Incorporate. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Burien, Washington, our information on Incorporating in Washington may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Washington.

Raising Money for Your New Venture

Getting your Burien business the capital it needs to succeed is not an easy task. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.

To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Business Credit Evaluation.

For Burien entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, we have assembled a List of Washington Angel Investors and our List of Washington Venture Capital Firms.

The Art of Selling

Mastering the art of selling is essential if you want your new Burien business to do well.

The key to selling is to set sales goals goals and monitor your progress towards those goals. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.

Selling Products on eBay is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.

Advancing Your Entrepreneurial Skills

Good entrepreneurs recognize that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.

As an entrepreneur who lives in Burien, Washington, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Washington educational institutions. It's also smart to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Burien entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

What's Next?

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

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 Burien and throughout the United States . We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Burien 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 Burien, Washington

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

• Resources for Burien, Washington Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Burien entrepreneurs.
• Washington Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Washington.
• Washington Small Business Development Center - Washington Small Business Development Centers promote economic vitality by providing advice, training and research to Washington entrepreneurs and existing Washington businesses.
• Burien, Washington Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for Burien, Washington newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the Burien area.