Starting a Business in North Cambridge, Massachusetts

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

Are You Ready for the Challenges of Being an Entrepreneur?

Most startup companies do not succeed, in part because the business owner did not have the perseverance and abilities that are necessary to succeed. So, before jumping into the world of entrepreneurship, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.

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 North Cambridge. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
• We recommend reading Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
• Seek the advice of somebody who knows you well. 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.

What Business to Start

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at Good Business Ideas.

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 your new startup will be located in North Cambridge. Some businesses will do better in North Cambridge than others. Only by spending some time analyzing North Cambridge demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.

North Cambridge, Massachusetts Demographic Information

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

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

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

Is Franchising a Better Option?

Browse the Yellow Pages for North Cambridge and you may be surprised to see how many franchises there are in the area. But is franchising the right option for you?

We highly recommend you consider franchising as an option. On our site, you can read many articles about franchising, such as Franchising and Veterans. Get a thorough education on franchising by browsing all 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 North Cambridge Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in North Cambridge.

Have You Considered Buying an Existing North Cambridge Business?

An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Massachusetts. Follow that link and you may find several good businesses for sale in North Cambridge.

If you are serious about buying a business, you may want to read this article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.

Naming the Business

A good company name can give a big boost to a new startup. It might seem like an easy thing to do, but there are many things to consider when naming a business.

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.

As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are planning on starting a business in North Cambridge, it's imperative that you check now that no other Massachusetts company is using the business name you want to use.

Forming a Company in North Cambridge, Massachusetts

A critical step is ensuring 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 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. If you are starting a business in Massachusetts, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Massachusetts. 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 Dissolving a Corporation. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, our information on Incorporating in Massachusetts may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Massachusetts.

Don't Skip the Business Plan

Writing a business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Indeed, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Not having a business plan will greatly reduce your chances of business success.

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

Startup Financing Basics

Getting your North Cambridge business the capital it needs to succeed is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. To obtain business financing, you will need to hear a lot of rejections before you finally find a funding solution that works for you.

To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Bank Credit Lines.

For North Cambridge entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, check out our List of Massachusetts Angel Investors and our List of Massachusetts Venture Capital Firms.

Marketing Your New Venture

To rise above the crowd in North Cambridge and build your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your successs.

You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. Toll Free Numbers 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 sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.

The Art of Selling

Mastering the art of selling is priority one if you want your new North Cambridge business to do well.

Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.

Cold Call Selling 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.

Increase Your Entrepreneurial Knowledge

Good entrepreneurs recognize that they don't know everything.

As an entrepreneur who lives in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Massachusetts universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also wise to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which North Cambridge entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

Never Give Up

Most new North Cambridge 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 North Cambridge and elsewhere to achieve real success. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new North Cambridge 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 North Cambridge, Massachusetts

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

• Resources for North Cambridge, Massachusetts Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist North Cambridge entrepreneurs.
• Massachusetts Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Massachusetts.
• Massachusetts Small Business Development Center - The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) Network provides one-to-one free comprehensive and confidential services focusing on, business growth and strategies, financing and loan assistance as well as strategic, marketing and operational analysis.
• North Cambridge, Massachusetts Newspaper Ad Rates - This is a nearly comprehensive list of advertising rates for North Cambridge, Massachusetts newspapers, including ad costs for newspapers serving the North Cambridge area.