Wisconsin Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Thinking about starting a business in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Fond du Lac.
Do You Have What It Takes?
Before you get too far along in the process, take inventory of your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
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 Fond du Lac. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful business.
- Peruse Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. This is one of our more popular articles for folks who want to go into business for themselves.
- Seek the advice of somebody who knows you well. 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.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Demographic Information
Fond du Lac has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Fond du Lac demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Fond du Lac.
Businesses
As a new Fond du Lac entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Fond du Lac 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 need to be easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and easy to remember.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Naming a Business.
On a final note, given that you are planning on starting a business in Fond du Lac, it's very important that you make sure no other Wisconsin company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
A critical step is ensuring 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 Wisconsin, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Wisconsin. As it turns out, 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 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 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, our information on Incorporating in Wisconsin may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Wisconsin.
Raising Capital for Your Venture
Getting your Fond du Lac business the capital it needs to succeed requires strong organization skills and perseverance. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.
Take advantage of our many articles on securing funding, such as Business Line of Credit.
For Fond du Lac entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Wisconsin Angel Investors and our List of Wisconsin Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Business
To rise above the crowd in Fond du Lac and build your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your succeeding.
We have some useful resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Advertising in Magazines is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
How to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Abilities
The best entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
As an entrepreneur who lives in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, you will want to take advantage of the learning programs at local Wisconsin educational institutions. It's also beneficial to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Fond du Lac entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
Now It's Up To You
You have a dream -- starting a business in Fond du Lac. 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.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Fond du Lac and throughout the United States . 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 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Fond du Lac.
- Resources for Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Fond du Lac entrepreneurs.
- Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Wisconsin.
- Wisconsin Small Business Development Center - Wisconsin Small Business Development Centers offer a variety of educational services to small-businesses. The low-cost courses, seminars, and workshops cover both basic and complex topics, from marketing to management techniques to business plan development.
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