Tennessee Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Johnson City, Tennessee
Are you starting a business in Johnson City, Tennessee? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Johnson City.
Do You Have What It Takes?
Being an entrepreneur is difficult, and can be orders of magnitude more strenuous than working as an employee. Are you positive you have the stamina and skills to succeed on your own?
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 Johnson City. Get their candid feedback on what it takes to start a successful business.
- We recommend reading Why Small Businesses Fail. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Get feedback from somebody whom you trust. A support network of family and friends can be a great sounding board for good advice before you decide for sure to go into business.
Which Business to Choose?
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 Free 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 Grain Elevator Equipment & Builders Business guide or our Opening a Lutheran School guide.
Always keep in mind that Johnson City is the place where you are starting a business. Some businesses will do better in Johnson City than others. Only by spending some time analyzing Johnson City demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Johnson City, Tennessee Demographic Information
Johnson City has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Johnson City demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Johnson City.
Businesses
As a new Johnson City entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Johnson City 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 Business
Making the right decision when choosing a company name is very important. There are many decisions you'll make now that you can change later, but changing a company name years down the road is not very easy. So, choose a good company name at the outset.
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 opening a business in Johnson City, it's critical that you ensure that no other Tennessee company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Johnson City, Tennessee
It's essential that you are forming a legal entity that operates independently from you. The main advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.
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 Tennessee, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Tennessee. In fact, you can incorporate in the state of your choosing. 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. Finally, if you are starting a business in Johnson City, Tennessee, our information on Incorporating in Tennessee may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Tennessee.
Building Up Your Sales
Do you know how to sell? In order to attract customers to your new Johnson City business, you need to focus on sales.
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.
Sales Prospecting is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.
Now It's Up To You
As an entrepreneur in Johnson City, you won't be working for the boss anymore. You are the boss.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Johnson City 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 Johnson City, Tennessee
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Johnson City.
- Resources for Johnson City, Tennessee Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Johnson City entrepreneurs.
- Tennessee Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Tennessee.
- Tennessee Small Business Development Center - If you are a small business owner, entrepreneur or you are thinking about starting a new business, the Tennessee Small Business Development Center (TSBDC) is ready to help you every step of the way!
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