Start a Business in Medford, Oregon

Contemplating starting a business in Medford, Oregon? We walk you through the process of opening a business in Medford.

Medford, Oregon Demographic Information

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

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

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

As you drive around Medford, you'll see that franchises make up a large percentage of local businesses. But is franchising the right option for you?

Our recommendation is that you evaluate the possibility of your buying a franchise opportunity. We have many articles on franchises, such as How to Find Financing for Franchises. Gain a solid understanding of franchising by scanning all of our Articles on Franchising.

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

Sample franchise opportunities include Coyote Canyon and Homes 4Sale By Owner Network. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Golf Franchises and Landscaping Franchises.

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

Have You Considered Buying an Existing Medford Business?

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

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

Company Formation in Medford, Oregon

A critical step is ensuring that you form your business as a legal structure. The principal advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.

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

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. Just because you are starting a business in Oregon, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Oregon. In fact, you are allowed to 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's a lot to know about forming a company. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Corporate Formalities. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Medford, Oregon, our information on Incorporating in Oregon may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Oregon.

Raising Money for Your New Venture

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

Take advantage of our many articles on raising money, such as Getting a Small Business Loan.

For Medford entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Oregon Angel Investors and our List of Oregon Venture Capital Firms.

Marketing Your New Venture

To rise above the crowd in Medford and build your business, you need a great marketing plan.

There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Billboard Advertising Best Practices is an article that will stimulate a few thoughts on your marketing plan. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.

Bring in Revenues

Do you know how to sell? In order to attract customers to your new Medford 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.

How to Build and Motivate a Sales Team is worth reading, as it may give you some good ideas on how to sell your products or services. We have many more good articles on selling that you may enjoy reading.

Moving Forward

As an entrepreneur in Medford, 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.

Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Medford and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Medford, neighborhood development and overall economic health.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Medford, Oregon

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

• Resources for Medford, Oregon Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Medford entrepreneurs.
• Oregon Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Oregon.
• Oregon Small Business Development Center - Oregon Small Business Development Centers use a client-centered approach to deliver counseling, training, information and technical assistance in all aspects of small business management. There is no fee for their assistance.
• Medford, Oregon Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for Medford, Oregon newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the Medford area.
• Medford, Oregon Radio Advertising Prices - To help you in your marketing efforts, we've gathered radio advertising rates for Medford, Oregon area radio stations.