California Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Danville, California
Are you starting a business in Danville, California? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Danville.
Will You Be a Good Entrepreneur?
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:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Danville. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
- We recommend reading Why Small Businesses Fail. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
Danville, California Demographic Information
Danville has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Danville demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Danville.
Businesses
As a new Danville entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Danville 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 Business Name
A good company name can give a big boost to a new startup. It might seem like an easy thing to do, but there are many things to consider when naming a business.
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 Company.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are planning on starting a business in Danville, it's very important that you make sure no other California company is using the business name you want to use.
Make Sure You Have a Business Plan
A business plan is critical in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Simply put, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Not having a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Contests. You can also get face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in California.
Getting Money to Start a Business
Getting your Danville 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 Realistic Debt Financing Options.
For Danville entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, we have assembled a List of California Angel Investors and our List of California Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Startup
To rise above the crowd in Danville and build your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your beating the competition.
We have some helpful resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Typical Direct Mail Response Rates is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
What's Next?
You have a dream -- starting a business in Danville. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
We are here to help Danville businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Danville, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Danville, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Danville.
- Resources for Danville, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Danville entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in California
Starting a Business in Daly City
Starting a Business in Davis
Browse All Business Startup Guides for California
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs