Texas Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in La Grange, Texas
Contemplating starting a business in La Grange, Texas? We walk you through the process of opening a business in La Grange.
Is Becoming a Business Owner Right for You?
Before announcing to the world that you are going to start your own business, take inventory of your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
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 La Grange. Get their take on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
- We recommend reading Should You Become an Entrepreneur?. For aspiring new entrepreneurs, it's a must read article.
- Have a candid conversation with friends and family. That's the best way to get a truly objective assessment as to whether others think you have what it takes.
La Grange, Texas Demographic Information
La Grange has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for La Grange demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in La Grange.
Businesses
As a new La Grange entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in La Grange 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
Forming a Company in La Grange, Texas
It's very important 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.
When forming a company, you will pick from many company types, such as a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.
Incorporating 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 Texas, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in Texas. 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 Corporate Formalities. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in La Grange, Texas, our web page covering Incorporating in Texas may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Texas.
Don't Skip the Business Plan
Having a business plan is vital in laying a solid foundation for your business success. In effect, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Not having a business plan makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.
To learn more about business plans, read Business Plan Mistakes. You can also get face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Texas.
Where to Get Money to Start a Company
Raising money to fund your new La Grange business is not an easy task. Bootstrapping, which means growing the business without outside funding, is the best alternative, but that's not a viable option for many startup plans.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Choosing VC Firms.
For La Grange entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, check out our List of Texas Angel Investors and our List of Texas Venture Capital Firms.
Getting the Word Out About Your New Startup
To grow your La Grange business, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
You can learn quite a bit about marketing on our site. How to Write a Marketing Plan is a good read to get your marketing ideas flowing. That's just a taste of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
The Art of Selling
Being able to sell is critical to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in La Grange or are selling to customers throughout Texas, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
Why should customers buy from you instead of buying from competitors? Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Selling with Questions offers some helpful tips on how to sell. It's one of several good articles on our site regarding Entrepreneurial Selling.
Moving Forward
You have a dream -- starting a business in La Grange. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in La Grange and throughout the United States . We believe entrepreneurship is an amazing engine for job creation in La Grange, neighborhood development and overall economic health.
More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in La Grange, Texas
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in La Grange.
- Resources for La Grange, Texas Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist La Grange entrepreneurs.
- Texas Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Texas.
- Houston, Texas Small Business Development Center - Serving 32 counties in Southeast Texas through 14 business consulting and training centers, the Small Business Development Center Network contributes to the growth and prosperity of the Texas Gulf Coast communities.
- North Texas Small Business Development Center - The NTSBDC Network promotes small business success by providing management education.
- Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center - The Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center was established with Texas Tech University in 1986. This regional program serves over ninety thousand square miles including ninety-five counties with a population base of approximately 1.8 million people. This region is serviced by six centers located in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland/Odessa, Abilene, Stephenville, and Wichita Falls.
- South-West Texas Border�SBDC Network Texas Small Business Development Center - The South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides consulting and technical assistance to the small business community.
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