California Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Santa Paula, California
Are you starting a business in Santa Paula, California? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Santa Paula.
Are You Ready for Life as an Owner?
Before quitting your day job, assess your entrepreneurial instincts and capabilities.
While entrepreneurship has become a popular career choice, we recommend you do the following before you take the plunge:
- Talk to other entrepreneurs in Santa Paula. Listen closely to their experiences and see if you think you too can be successful.
- 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. Ask them directly: Do I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Listen carefully to their answer, as they presumably know your strengths and weaknesses.
Choosing the Right Company to Start
There are many businesses that you can start. How do you know which type of business is right for you? You might get some good ideas about what kind of business to start by reading Free Business Ideas.
To view an extensive list of business types, complete with startup instructions, spend some time in the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Starting a Country Dining Restaurant guide or our Starting a Real Estate Brokers' Supplies Business guide.
Remember that your new startup will be located in Santa Paula. Some businesses will do better in Santa Paula than others. Only by spending some time analyzing Santa Paula demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Santa Paula, California Demographic Information
Santa Paula has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Santa Paula demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Santa Paula.
Businesses
As a new Santa Paula entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Santa Paula 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 Company
A good company name can give a big boost to a new startup. It might seem like an easy thing to do, but there are many things to consider when naming a business.
Before you decide on a company name, run it by some prospective customers and see what they think. If they don't like it, it's probably a good idea to go back to the drawing board.
For other considerations regarding naming a company, we recommend this article: Branding Advice.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are planning on starting a business in Santa Paula, it's very important that you make sure no other California company is using the business name you want to use.
Forming a Company in Santa Paula, California
It's very important that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. Without a legal structure for the business, you can be held personally liable for the actions, debts and obligations of your company.
The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.
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 California, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in California. In fact, you can incorporate in the state of your choosing. 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. We recommend you read some of the educational articles about company formation that are availabe on our site, such as Pre-Incorporation Agreements. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Santa Paula, California, our information on Incorporating in California may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in California.
Marketing Your New Company
To grow your Santa Paula business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your successs.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Effective Direct Mail Campaigns is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just a sampling of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Never Give Up
You have a dream -- starting a business in Santa Paula. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
From this point on, you control your own destiny.
We are here to help Santa Paula businesses to be successful. 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 Santa Paula, California
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Santa Paula.
- Resources for Santa Paula, California Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Santa Paula 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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