Florida Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Thinking about starting a business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Fort Lauderdale.
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 stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at Evaluating Your Idea.
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 How to Start a Metal Finishing Equipment & Supplies Business guide or our How to Start a Mobile Health Care Business guide.
Remember that you are starting a business in Fort Lauderdale. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Fort Lauderdale. Study Fort Lauderdale demographics and do a competitive analysis as part of your startup planning process.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida Demographic Information
Fort Lauderdale has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Fort Lauderdale demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Fort Lauderdale.
Businesses
As a new Fort Lauderdale entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Fort Lauderdale 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
Is Franchising a Better Option?
Examine a list of Fort Lauderdale businesses and you'll notice that many local entrepreneurs have gone the franchising route. Should you be giving franchising serious consideration?
Our advice is to consider franchising as an option. We have many articles on franchises, such as Five Franchise Opportunities To Watch. Become a franchising expert of sorts by reading more of our Articles on Franchising.
You can review hundreds of franchise opportunities by browing our Franchise Directory.
Representative franchise opportunities include UBuildIt and Atlantic Windshield. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Textile Repair Franchises and Health and Diet Franchises.
Note on Fort Lauderdale Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Fort Lauderdale.
What About Buying an Existing Fort Lauderdale Business?
We've created a handy website page for those who want to Buy a Business in Florida. Follow that link and you may find several good businesses for sale in Fort Lauderdale.
Before buying a business, be sure to read this article: How to Buy a Business.
Forming a Company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
It's essential that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Doing so will shield you from personal liability for business debts and obligations.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
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 Florida, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Florida. As it turns out, 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. To learn the basics of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Subchapter S Corporations. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, our information on Incorporating in Florida may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Florida.
Startup Financing Basics
Finding the funds to fuel the growth of your Fort Lauderdale business 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 Attracting Investors.
For Fort Lauderdale entrepreneurs on the hunt for startup funding, you'll want to take a look at our List of Florida Angel Investors and our List of Florida Venture Capital Firms.
Getting the Word Out About Your New Company
To rise above the crowd in Fort Lauderdale and build your business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your business achieving its goals.
We have some excellent resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Newspaper Advertising Costs is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Fort Lauderdale Entrepreneur Interviews
Here, we'll keep a running list of interviews we've had with Fort Lauderdale entrepreneurs.
- Interview with Anti-Aging Entrepreneur David Tippie
- Interview with Coach for Living Founder Paula Holland De Long
- Interview with Jim Janosik, Founder of GoGreenPrinting.biz
- Interview with Matt Lally, Founder of Imaneed.com
What's Next?
You have a dream -- starting a business in Fort Lauderdale. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
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 Fort Lauderdale and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in Fort Lauderdale, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Fort Lauderdale.
- Resources for Fort Lauderdale, Florida Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Fort Lauderdale 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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