Florida Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Palm Beach, Florida
Thinking about starting a business in Palm Beach, Florida? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Palm Beach.
What Business Are You Starting?
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to 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 Opening a China, Crystal, & Glassware Repair Business guide or our Starting a Log Homes, Buildings, & Cabins Dealers Business guide.
Always keep in mind that your new business will be in Palm Beach. Some businesses will do better in Palm Beach than others. Study Palm Beach demographics and do a competitive analysis as part of your startup planning process.
Palm Beach, Florida Demographic Information
Palm Beach has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Palm Beach demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Palm Beach.
Businesses
As a new Palm Beach entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Palm Beach 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
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.
We strongly advocate that you make sure the ".com" domain name is available for your company name. Every business needs a strong Web presence these days, and having a non ".com" domain means somebody else may outrank you in the search results for your own company name.
Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Business.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are starting a business in Palm Beach, it's imperative that you check now that your company name has not already been claimed by another Florida business.
Don't Skip the Business Plan
A business plan is critical to the health of your new business. Indeed, a business plan describes what you plan to do with the business and how you plan to do it. Not having a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
To learn more about business plans, read Expert Advice on Business Plans. A great resource for business planning assistance is the face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Florida.
Getting Money to Start a Business
Raising money to fund your new Palm Beach business will be harder than you might expect. If you don't have a rich uncle to fund you, you'll need to be creative in how you approach your fundraising efforts.
On the bright side, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Realistic Debt Financing Options.
For Palm Beach entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, you'll want to take a look at our List of Florida Angel Investors and our List of Florida Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Startup
To grow your Palm Beach business, you need a excellent marketing plan.
We have some excellent resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Phone Book Advertising Costs 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.
Ramping Up Sales
Mastering the art of selling is essential if you want your new Palm Beach business to do well.
Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. The good news is we can help you to make selling a big competitve advantage for your new firm.
Compensating Sales People is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.
Moving Forward
Most new Palm Beach businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Palm Beach and throughout the United States . We have a wealth of experience in business start-ups, financing, marketing, sales and more...and we've made all of our knowledge available to you.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Palm Beach, Florida
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Palm Beach.
- Resources for Palm Beach, Florida Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Palm Beach entrepreneurs.
- Florida Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Florida.
- Florida Small Business Development Center - The Florida Small Business Development Center Network (FSBDCN) is a statewide economic development partnership between higher education and other stakeholder organizations dedicated to providing entrepreneurs and established businesses with the assistance needed to start, grow and succeed, contributing to the Florida economy.
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