Alabama Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Northport, Alabama
Thinking about starting a business in Northport, Alabama? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Northport.
Northport, Alabama Demographic Information
Northport has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Northport demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Northport.
Businesses
As a new Northport entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Northport 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
What About Franchising Opportunities?
Examine a list of Northport businesses and you may be surprised to see how many franchises there are in the area. But is franchising the right option for you?
We advise the entrepreneurs we work with to look into purchasing a franchise. This site has dozens of articles on franchising, such as Opportunities in International Franchising. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
You can find franchise opportunities by browsing our Franchise Opportunities Directory.
Representative franchise opportunities include Squeegee Squad and Gulliver's Doggie Daycare. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as B2B Franchises and Hair Styling Franchises.
Note on Northport Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Northport.
Naming the Company
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.
Company names should be fun to say, and they should help people to understand what you do and how you differentiate yourself in the market.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Naming a Business.
There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are opening a business in Northport, it's imperative that you check now that no other Alabama company is using the business name you want to use.
Raising Capital for Your Business
Getting your Northport business the capital it needs to succeed requires strong organization skills and perseverance. 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 504 Loans.
For Northport entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, browse our List of Alabama Angel Investors and our List of Alabama Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Business
Whether your goal is to attract Northport customers or you plan on selling elsewhere, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
We have some great resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Promoting an Online Business 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.
Improving Your Entrepreneurial Skillset
The best entrepreneurs recognize that they need to continually improve.
With your business being located in Northport, Alabama, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Alabama universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking organizations for Northport entrepreneurs.
Next Steps
Most new Northport businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Northport businesses to be successful. We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Northport, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Northport, Alabama
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Northport.
- Resources for Northport, Alabama Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Northport entrepreneurs.
- Alabama Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Alabama.
- Alabama Small Business Development Center - Alabama's Small Business Development Center (SBDC) counsels and trains business people in a wide variety of business topics and provides comprehensive information services and access to experts in many fields. Counseling is provided free of charge to all Alabama small business owners.
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