Starting a Business in Mississippi State, Mississippi

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

Do You Have What It Takes?

Most new companies don't make it, in part because the business owner did not have the entrepreneurial skills and traits needed to succeed. So, before you start your business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.

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 Mississippi State. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful business.
• 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. 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.

What Type of Business Should You Start?

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. If you are struggling with what type of business to start, read Business Ideas That Don't Make Sense.

For in-depth how-to guides on how to start specific businesses, browse our 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.

Always keep in mind that you are starting a business in Mississippi State. Some businesses will do better in Mississippi State than others. Make sure you fully understand Mississippi State demographics before you lock in on your business idea.

Mississippi State, Mississippi Demographic Information

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

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

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

Examine a list of Mississippi State businesses and you may be surprised to see how many franchises there are in the area. Would going with a franchise be a good idea for you?

We advise the entrepreneurs we work with to consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as The Disadvantages of Franchise Ownership. Gain a solid understanding of franchising by scanning all of our Articles on Franchising.

A comprehensive list of franchisors is available via our List of Franchise Opportunities.

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

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

Is Buying an Existing Mississippi State Business a Good Strategy?

An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Mississippi. Follow that link and you can review several good businesses for sale in Mississippi State.

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

Choosing a Business 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.

Before you decide on a company name, run it by some prospective customers and see what they think. If they don't like it, it's probably a good idea to go back to the drawing board.

To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Branding Advice.

There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are starting a business in Mississippi State, it's imperative that you check now that no other Mississippi company is using the business name you want to use.

Company Formation in Mississippi State, Mississippi

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

The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.

Incorporating 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. Just because you are starting a business in Mississippi, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Mississippi. In fact, 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'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 Avoiding Personal Liability in Business. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Mississippi State, Mississippi, our information on Incorporating in Mississippi may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Mississippi.

Make Sure You Have a Business Plan

Creating a business plan is essential in maximizing the prospects of your new company. In effect, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Failure to write a business plan

To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Contests. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free counseling sessions provided by your local SCORE chapter in Mississippi.

Raising Money for Your New Venture

Getting your Mississippi State 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.

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

For Mississippi State entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, check out our List of Mississippi Angel Investors and our List of Mississippi Venture Capital Firms.

Marketing Your New Company

Whether your goal is to attract Mississippi State customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you need a excellent marketing plan.

You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Transit Advertising discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.

Bring in Revenues

Mastering the art of selling is a must if you want your new Mississippi State business to do well.

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.

Selling on the Phone 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.

Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset

Good entrepreneurs know that what they know now may not be enough to ensure their future success.

With your business being located in Mississippi State, Mississippi, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Mississippi universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Mississippi State entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

Now It's Up To You

Most new Mississippi State businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.

From this point on, you control your own destiny.

This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Mississippi State and elsewhere to achieve real success. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Mississippi State entrepreneur who is just getting started or you are already up and running with your new venture.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Mississippi State, Mississippi

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

• Resources for Mississippi State, Mississippi Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Mississippi State entrepreneurs.
• Mississippi Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Mississippi.
• Mississippi Small Business Development Center - The Mississippi Small Business Development Centers (MSBDC) is dedicated to helping build and grow businesses in Mississippi. For new entrepreneurs, this is an excellent resource.
• Mississippi State, Mississippi Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for Mississippi State, Mississippi newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the Mississippi State area.