Starting a Business in Hatteras, North Carolina

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

Will You Be a Good Entrepreneur?

Running your own business is demanding, much harder than working as an employee. Are you positive you want to start a business?

To determine whether you have what it takes to run a business, we recommend these three steps to help you decide:

• Talk to other entrepreneurs in Hatteras. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
• We recommend reading Should You Become an Entrepreneur?. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
• Have a candid conversation with friends and family. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.

What Business Are You Starting?

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. You might get some good ideas about what kind of business to start by reading Good Business Ideas.

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.

Remember that your new startup will be located in Hatteras. Some businesses will do better in Hatteras than others. Make sure you fully understand Hatteras demographics before you lock in on your business idea.

Hatteras, North Carolina Demographic Information

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

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

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

Have You Considered Franchising?

Visit the business district of Hatteras and it's apparent that franchising has become a very popular way to start a business. But is franchising the right option for you?

Most business experts recommend that you look into purchasing a franchise. We have many articles on franchises, such as Staffing a Franchise. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.

To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.

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

Note on Hatteras Franchise Opportunities: To find out if a franchise you are interested in is available in Hatteras, you will need to get in direct contact with the franchisor.

Have You Considered Buying an Existing Hatteras Business?

If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in North Carolina. Follow that link and you may find several good businesses for sale in Hatteras.

For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.

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.

Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Company.

As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are opening a business in Hatteras, it's critical that you ensure that no other North Carolina company is using the business name you want to use.

Forming a Company in Hatteras, North Carolina

It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Doing so will protect you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.

The entity you form can be a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.

Incorporation is a very common way to legally create a business entity. Of course, you have to decide which type of corporation to form and where to incorporate. If you are starting a business in North Carolina, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in North Carolina. In fact, you can incorporate in any state you would like to. For example, it's very popular to incorporate in Delaware, and incorporating in Nevada has become very trendy as well. Don't forget, though, that you will have to register as a foreign entity in all states that you do business in.

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 Company Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Hatteras, North Carolina, our information on Incorporating in North Carolina may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in North Carolina.

Don't Skip the Business Plan

Having a business plan is vital to the health of your new business. Simply put, a business plan is a written description of the future you envision for your business. Failure to write a business plan makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.

Before you start writing a business plan, we suggest you skim Business Plan Contests. You should also take advantage of free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in North Carolina.

Raising Money for Your New Venture

Getting your Hatteras business the capital it needs to succeed requires strong organization skills and perseverance. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.

Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Business Credit Evaluation.

For Hatteras entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, you'll want to take a look at our List of North Carolina Angel Investors and our List of North Carolina Venture Capital Firms.

Letting the World Know You Exist

Whether your goal is to attract Hatteras customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your successs.

You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Working with an Advertising Agency is an article that will stimulate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.

Selling Tips

Do you know how to sell? In order to attract customers to your new Hatteras business, you need to focus on sales.

Why should customers buy from you instead of buying from competitors? Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.

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

Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge

Good entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.

Given that you are starting a business in Hatteras, North Carolina, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby North Carolina universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also beneficial to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Hatteras entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

What's Next?

As an entrepreneur in Hatteras, 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.

We are here to help Hatteras businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Hatteras, neighborhood development and overall economic health.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Hatteras, North Carolina

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

• Resources for Hatteras, North Carolina Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Hatteras entrepreneurs.
• North Carolina Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in North Carolina.
• North Carolina Small Business Development Center - The North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) helps small business owners meet the challenges of today's business environment. To do this, they provide management counseling and educational services to small and mid-sized businesses throughout North Carolina.
• Hatteras, North Carolina Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for Hatteras, North Carolina newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the Hatteras area.