California Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Mount Shasta, California
Are you starting a business in Mount Shasta, California? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Mount Shasta.
Are You Ready for the Challenges of Being an Entrepreneur?
Most startup businesses fail, in part because the business owner did not have the perseverance and abilities that are necessary to succeed. So, before you start your business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Mount Shasta. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
- 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. Ask them directly: Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Listen carefully to their answer, as they presumably know your strengths and weaknesses.
Mount Shasta, California Demographic Information
Mount Shasta has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Mount Shasta demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Mount Shasta.
Businesses
As a new Mount Shasta entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Mount Shasta 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
Picking a Company Name
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.
Pick a company name that isn't too generic. If you do a search engine search for your proposed name and a billion results come up, you may want to reconsider the name. It's much easier to come up in the search engines when your name is fairly unique.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Naming a Company.
On a final note, given that you are planning on starting a business in Mount Shasta, it's imperative that you check now that no other California company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Mount Shasta, California
It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. 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.
Incorporation 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. If you are starting a business in California, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in California. In fact, 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 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 Piercing the Corporate Veil. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Mount Shasta, California, our information on Incorporating in California may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in California.
The Role of the Business Plan
A business plan is vital to the health of your new business. Simply put, a business plan describes what you plan to do with the business and how you plan to do it. Starting a business without a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
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 California.
Letting the World Know You Exist
Whether your goal is to attract Mount Shasta customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your beating the competition.
You can learn plenty about marketing on our site. Advertising on Google 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.
Advancing Your Entrepreneurial Skills
Successful business owners recognize that they need to continually improve.
Given that you are starting a business in Mount Shasta, California, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby California universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking organizations for Mount Shasta entrepreneurs.
Never Give Up
Most new Mount Shasta businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Mount Shasta and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Mount Shasta, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Mount Shasta, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Mount Shasta.
- Resources for Mount Shasta, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Mount Shasta entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
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