Ohio Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Madison, Ohio
Are you starting a business in Madison, Ohio? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Madison.
Madison, Ohio Demographic Information
Madison has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Madison demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Madison.
Businesses
As a new Madison entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Madison 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
Picking a Company Name
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.
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 Company.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are opening a business in Madison, it's imperative that you check now that no Ohio company has already registered the company name you have selected.
Forming a Company in Madison, Ohio
A critical step is ensuring that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. The primary advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.
When forming a company, you will pick from many company types, such as a corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership or other structure.
Incorporation 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 Ohio, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in Ohio. As it turns out, you can incorporate wherever you want. 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 C Corp Versus S Corp. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Madison, Ohio, our web page covering Incorporating in Ohio may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Ohio.
Where to Get Money to Start a Company
Obtaining startup financing for your Madison 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.
To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Choosing VC Firms.
For Madison entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, browse our List of Ohio Angel Investors and our List of Ohio Venture Capital Firms.
Marketing Your New Venture
To rise above the crowd in Madison and grow your business, you'll need to have a good marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Competitive Analysis 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 priority one if you want your new Madison business to do well.
The key to selling is to set sales goals goals and monitor your progress towards those goals. Fortunately, we've got plenty of good advice to help you improve your selling skills.
Tips on Customer Referrals is worth reading, as it may give you some good ideas on how to sell your products or services. We have many more good articles on selling that you may enjoy reading.
Now It's Up To You
Most new Madison businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
Our goal here is to promote the vitality and growth of small businesses in Madison 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 Madison, Ohio
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Madison.
- Resources for Madison, Ohio Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Madison entrepreneurs.
- Ohio Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Ohio.
- Ohio Small Business Development Center - Whether you're starting your business, expanding your business, or just looking to stay in business, the Small Business Development Centers of Ohio (SBDCs of Ohio) can help with professional guidance by connecting you with research, financing sources, and training opportunities.
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