Starting a Business in Fort Sam Houston, Texas

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

Are You Sure You Want to Do This?

Before quitting your day job, consider your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.

While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:

• Speak with other entrepreneurs in Fort Sam Houston. Ask them candidly what it's like to run a business.
• You should read Starting a Company. It's a good read for those who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.
• Talk it over with a close friend or partner. The people who know you best are often in the best position to tell you bluntly whether you will be a good entrepreneur.

What Type of Business Should You Start?

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 Evaluating Your Idea.

To view an extensive list of business types, complete with startup instructions, spend some time in the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Starting a Dance Club guide or our Starting a Tatoo Parlor guide.

Don't forget that you are starting a business in Fort Sam Houston. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Fort Sam Houston. Only by spending some time analyzing Fort Sam Houston demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.

Fort Sam Houston, Texas Demographic Information

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

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

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

What About Franchising Opportunities?

As you drive around Fort Sam Houston, you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. Should you be giving franchising serious consideration?

Our advice is to consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as Protecting Your Franchise Territory. Get a thorough education on franchising by browsing all of our Articles on Franchising.

You can review hundreds of franchise opportunities by browing our Franchise Directory.

Representative franchise opportunities include Subway Franchises and Starbucks Franchises. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Accounting Franchises and Moving Franchises.

Note on Fort Sam Houston Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Fort Sam Houston.

What About Buying an Existing Fort Sam Houston Business?

We've created a handy website page for those who want to Buy a Business in Texas. Follow that link and you might discover several good businesses for sale in Fort Sam Houston.

Before buying a business, be sure to read this article: How to Buy a Business.

Choosing a Company Name

Making the right decision when choosing a company name is very important. There are many decisions you'll make now that you can change later, but changing a company name years down the road is not very easy. So, choose a good company name at the outset.

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 Company.

There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are opening a business in Fort Sam Houston, it's very important that you make sure no other Texas company is using the business name you want to use.

Company Formation in Fort Sam Houston, Texas

It's essential that you choose the right legal structure for your new entity. Without a legal structure for the business, you can be held personally liable for the actions, debts and obligations of your company.

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. Just because you are starting a business in Texas, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Texas. As it turns out, 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's a lot to know about forming a company. To learn the fundamentals of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Incorporating Online. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, our information on Incorporating in Texas may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Texas.

Don't Skip the Business Plan

A business plan is vital in maximizing the prospects of your new company. In effect, 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 Presentations. You can also get face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Texas.

Raising Funding for Your Business

Getting your Fort Sam Houston business the capital it needs to succeed is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.

Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled 504 Loans.

For Fort Sam Houston entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, check out our List of Texas Angel Investors and our List of Texas Venture Capital Firms.

Promoting Your New Startup

To grow your Fort Sam Houston business, you need a solid marketing plan.

There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Business Cards is a good read to get your marketing creativity flowing. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.

The Art of Selling

Being able to sell is essential to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Fort Sam Houston or are selling to customers throughout Texas, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.

So what does it take to bring in more prospects and close more business? The good news is we can help you to make selling a big competitve advantage for your new firm.

Closing Sales is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.

Advancing Your Entrepreneurial Skills

Good business owners know that they don't know everything.

With your business being located in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Texas universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any Fort Sam Houston networking organizations.

Next Steps

You have a dream -- starting a business in Fort Sam Houston. 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 Fort Sam Houston 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 Fort Sam Houston, Texas

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

• Resources for Fort Sam Houston, Texas Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Fort Sam Houston entrepreneurs.
• Texas Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Texas.
• Houston, Texas Small Business Development Center - Serving 32 counties in Southeast Texas through 14 business consulting and training centers, the Small Business Development Center Network contributes to the growth and prosperity of the Texas Gulf Coast communities.
• North Texas Small Business Development Center - The NTSBDC Network promotes small business success by providing management education.
• Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center - The Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center was established with Texas Tech University in 1986. This regional program serves over ninety thousand square miles including ninety-five counties with a population base of approximately 1.8 million people. This region is serviced by six centers located in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland/Odessa, Abilene, Stephenville, and Wichita Falls.
• South-West Texas Border SBDC Network Texas Small Business Development Center - The South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides consulting and technical assistance to the small business community.
• Fort Sam Houston, Texas Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for Fort Sam Houston, Texas newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the Fort Sam Houston area.