Kentucky Business Startup Guides

Starting a Business in Nicholasville, Kentucky

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

Nicholasville, Kentucky Demographic Information

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

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

Business Size
# of
Businesses
1-4 Employees
1353
5-9 Employees
552
10-19 Employees
375
20-49 Employees
246
50-99 Employees
42
100-249 Employees
51
250-499 Employees
9
500-999 Employees
6
1000+ Employees
0
All Nicholasville Businesses
2634

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

Business Type
# of
Businesses
Advertising Agencies
2
Apprenticeship Training
1
Automotive Parts and Accessories Stores
6
Automotive Transmission Repair
1
Beauty Salons
10
Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
5
Boat Building
1
Boat Dealers
2
Book Publishers
1
Bowling Centers
1
Business Associations
2
Cafeterias
2
Canvas and Related Product Mills
2
Car Washes
2
Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services
2
Cemeteries and Crematories
1
Charter Bus Industry
1
Child and Youth Services
2
Civic and Social Organizations
1
Coin-Operated Laundries and Drycleaners
1
Commercial Flexographic Printing
1
Commercial Lithographic Printing
2
Commercial Photography
1
Commercial Screen Printing
1
Computer Systems Design Services
2
Concrete Block and Brick Manufacturing
1
Consumer Lending
2
Convenience Stores
1
Cosmetology and Barber Schools
1
Couriers
1
Curtain and Drapery Mills
2
Custom Computer Programming Services
1
Dental Laboratories
1
Discount Department Stores
1
Document Preparation Services
1
Drafting Services
2
Drywall and Insulation Contractors
9
Educational Support Services
1
Electric Power Distribution
2
Electronic Shopping
1
Engineering Services
6
Environmental Consulting Services
1
Exterminating and Pest Control Services
2
Family Clothing Stores
3
Farm Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
1
Finish Carpentry Contractors
10
Floor Covering Stores
3
Florists
4
Folding Paperboard Box Manufacturing
2
Food (Health) Supplement Stores
1
Food Service Contractors
1
Framing Contractors
6
Freight Transportation Arrangement
1
Funeral Homes and Funeral Services
2
Furniture Stores
2
General Automotive Repair
8
General Freight Trucking, Local
5
General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
1
General Rental Centers
4
General Warehousing and Storage
1
Golf Courses and Country Clubs
6
Graphic Design Services
2
Hand and Edge Tool Manufacturing
1
Hardware Manufacturing
1
Hardware Merchant Wholesalers
2
Hardware Stores
1
Home Furnishing Merchant Wholesalers
1
Home Health Equipment Rental
1
Homes for the Elderly
1
Household Appliance Stores
1
Industrial Design Services
1
Industrial Mold Manufacturing
1
Institutional Furniture Manufacturing
1
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
15
Jewelry Stores
5
Landscape Architectural Services
1
Landscaping Services
16
Lessors of Other Real Estate Property
2
Limited-Service Restaurants
20
Livestock Merchant Wholesalers
1
Machine Shops
1
Masonry Contractors
4
Mortgage and Nonmortgage Loan Brokers
1
Motion Picture and Video Production
1
Motor Vehicle Metal Stamping
1
Motorcycle Dealers
1
Musical Instrument and Supplies Stores
2
Nail Salons
2
New Car Dealers
5
New Housing Operative Builders
2
Newspaper Publishers
2
Nonresidential Property Managers
2
Office Administrative Services
4
Offices of Certified Public Accountants
6
Offices of Chiropractors
5
Offices of Lawyers
10
Offices of Optometrists
3
Offices of Other Holding Companies
1
Offices of Real Estate Appraisers
2
Outdoor Power Equipment Stores
2
Packaging and Labeling Services
1
Paging
1
Paint and Wallpaper Stores
2
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
5
Pet and Pet Supplies Stores
2
Pet Care (except Veterinary) Services
4
Pharmacies and Drug Stores
4
Photography Studios, Portrait
2
Plastics Bottle Manufacturing
1
Professional Employer Organizations
1
Professional Organizations
2
Radio Networks
1
Ready-Mix Concrete Manufacturing
1
Real Estate Credit
1
Remediation Services
2
Residential Property Managers
2
Reupholstery and Furniture Repair
1
Roofing Contractors
4
Sanitary Paper Product Manufacturing
1
Savings Institutions
1
Sawmills
1
Securities Brokerage
3
Security Guards and Patrol Services
1
Sheet Metal Work Manufacturing
2
Shoe Stores
1
Siding Contractors
3
Sign Manufacturing
2
Site Preparation Contractors
13
Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars
1
Soap and Other Detergent Manufacturing
1
Solid Waste Collection
1
Sporting Goods Stores
2
Sports and Recreation Instruction
1
Steel Wire Drawing
1
Support Activities for Coal Mining
1
Tax Preparation Services
4
Tire and Tube Merchant Wholesalers
1
Tire Retreading
1
Title Abstract and Settlement Offices
2
Tobacco Stores
3
Tradebinding and Related Work
1
Used Car Dealers
11
Used Household and Office Goods Moving
1
Used Merchandise Stores
2
Veterinary Services
4
Video Tape and Disc Rental
2
Vocational Rehabilitation Services
1
Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters
1
Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers
6
Window Treatment Stores
2
Wired Telecommunications Carriers
2
Wood Office Furniture Manufacturing
1

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.

Companies like Starbucks, Apple, Target, Microsoft and Intuit all have strong company names that are easy to remember and have become well-loved brands. Wouldn't it be nice if your new company name got on a similar track?

For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Naming a Business.

On a final note, given that you are planning on starting a business in Nicholasville, it's imperative that you check now that your company name has not already been claimed by another Kentucky business.

Forming a Company in Nicholasville, Kentucky

It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. The principal advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.

When forming a company, you will pick from many company types, such as a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.

Incorporation is a very common way to legally create a business entity. 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. If you are starting a business in Kentucky, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Kentucky. In fact, you can incorporate wherever you want. 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 Pre-Incorporation Agreements. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Nicholasville, Kentucky, our web page covering Incorporating in Kentucky may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Kentucky.

Do You Need a Business Plan?

Having a business plan is critical to the health of your new business. In effect, 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 makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.

To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Mistakes. A great resource for business planning assistance is the free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in Kentucky.

Raising Money for Your New Venture

Raising money to fund your new Nicholasville business is not an easy task. To obtain business financing, you will need to hear a lot of rejections before you finally find a funding solution that works for you.

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

For Nicholasville entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, you'll want to take a look at our List of Kentucky Angel Investors and our List of Kentucky Venture Capital Firms.

Promoting Your New Company

Whether your goal is to attract Nicholasville customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.

There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Music on Hold discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.

Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset

The best business owners recognize that they don't know everything.

Given that you are starting a business in Nicholasville, Kentucky, you should get information on some of the learning programs at local Kentucky educational institutions. You should also check if there are any Nicholasville networking organizations.

Next Steps

Most new Nicholasville 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 Nicholasville and elsewhere to achieve real success. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Nicholasville, neighborhood development and overall economic health.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Nicholasville, Kentucky

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

  • Resources for Nicholasville, Kentucky Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Nicholasville entrepreneurs.
  • Kentucky Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Kentucky.
  • Kentucky Small Business Development Center - The Kentucky Small Business Development Center (KSBDC) has been assisting Kentucky small business community for more than 25 years. KSBDC is co-sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration and is administered by the University of Kentucky in partnership with regional universities, community and private colleges, and the private sector.

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