California Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Palm Springs, California
Are you starting a business in Palm Springs, California? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Palm Springs.
Is Becoming an Entrepreneur Right for You?
Most new businesses don't make it, in part because the business owner did not have the entrepreneurial skills and traits needed to succeed. So, before you open a business, consider all of the implications of being an entrepreneur.
To determine whether you have what it takes to run a business, we recommend these three steps to help you decide:
- Grab a meal or cofee with other entrepreneurs in Palm Springs. Get their take on what it's really like to be an entrepreneur.
- Take a look at Business Failure. It's a short article but it's a good reality check for those are about to jump into the world of entrepreneurship.
- Involve a spouse, family member or trusted friend in the decision. That's the best way to get a truly objective assessment as to whether others think you have what it takes.
Choosing the Right Company to Start
Choosing a business that is right for you is very important. To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to read Good 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 Booking Agents Business guide or our Starting an Outdoor Advertising & Billboards Business guide.
Remember that you are starting a business in Palm Springs. If Palm Springs already has plenty of the kind of business you want to start, you might want to change your plans. Only by spending some time analyzing Palm Springs demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Palm Springs, California Demographic Information
Palm Springs has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Palm Springs demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Palm Springs.
Businesses
As a new Palm Springs entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Palm Springs 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
What About Franchising Opportunities?
As you drive around Palm Springs, it becomes clear that purchasing a franchise is a common way to get started as an entrepreneur. Is it perhaps smarter to franchise a business instead of doing it from scratch.
We highly recommend you consider franchising as an option. To help you learn more about franchising, we've gathered a ton of articles on franchising, including Selling A Franchise. Gain a solid understanding of franchising by scanning all of our Articles on Franchising.
To learn about specific franchise opportunities, check out our Franchise Directory.
Sample franchise opportunities include ActionCOACH Canada and Little City Kids. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Health and Diet Franchises and Ice Cream Franchises.
Note on Palm Springs Franchise Opportunities: To find out if a franchise you are interested in is available in Palm Springs, you will need to get in direct contact with the franchisor.
Forming a Company in Palm Springs, California
A critical step is ensuring that you form your business as a legal structure. 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.
Incorporation is a very popular way to form a business. 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 California, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in California. In fact, you can incorporate in any state you would like to. 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. To learn the fundamentals of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as Getting an EIN. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in Palm Springs, California, our web page covering Incorporating in California may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in California.
Getting the Word Out About Your New Business
To rise above the crowd in Palm Springs and accelerate your business, you need a excellent marketing plan.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Creating a Press Kit discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Moving Forward
Most new Palm Springs businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Palm Springs and elsewhere to achieve real success. 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 Springs, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Palm Springs.
- Resources for Palm Springs, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Palm Springs entrepreneurs.
- California Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in California.
- Fresno, California Small Business Development Center - The UC Merced SBDC Regional Network assists Central California entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling, training and business information.
- Los Angeles, California Small Business Development Center - The Los Angeles Regional Small Business Development Center Network (LA SBDC Network) is part of the national, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) effort to provide free one-on-one customized consulting services and low-cost training workshops to growing businesses and start-up businesses.
- Sacramento, California Small Business Development Center - As Northern California continues to grow demographically and economically, the Northeastern California Small Business Development Center (NECSBDC) at CSU, Chico is committed to helping communities prepare and plan for future growth.
- San Diego, California Small Business Development Center - The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Southwestern College serves entrepreneurs and small businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties. The SBDC provides no-cost business assistance to start-up & existing businesses.
- San Francisco, California Small Business Development Center - The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers helps individuals start, manage and grow their businesses.
- Orange County Small Business Development Center - The Orange County SBDC is a leader in providing consulting, training, and technical assistance to the small business community.
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