Pennsylvania Business Startup Guides

Starting a Business in Scottdale, Pennsylvania

Thinking about starting a business in Scottdale, Pennsylvania? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Scottdale.

Choosing the Right Company to Start

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To stir your creative juices on what kind of business to start, take a look at 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 Opening a Yogurt Shop guide or our Starting a Large Animal Veterinarians Business guide.

Always keep in mind that your new startup will be located in Scottdale. Think about what needs are currently being underserved in Scottdale. A critical consideration is whether Scottdale demographics mesh well with your startup concept.

Scottdale, Pennsylvania Demographic Information

Scottdale has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.

To give you a better feel for Scottdale demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Scottdale.

Business Size
# of
Businesses
1-4 Employees
514
5-9 Employees
216
10-19 Employees
162
20-49 Employees
114
50-99 Employees
36
100-249 Employees
12
250-499 Employees
0
500-999 Employees
12
1000+ Employees
0
All Scottdale Businesses
1066

As a new Scottdale entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Scottdale 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.

Business Type
# of
Businesses
Automotive Parts and Accessories Stores
1
Beauty Salons
3
Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
1
Book Publishers
1
Car Washes
1
Child Day Care Services
1
Civic and Social Organizations
6
Commercial Screen Printing
1
Credit Unions
2
Dental Laboratories
1
Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)
1
Electrical Contractors
1
Envelope Manufacturing
1
Family Clothing Stores
2
Floor Covering Stores
1
Florists
1
Freight Transportation Arrangement
1
Full-Service Restaurants
3
Funeral Homes and Funeral Services
2
General Automotive Repair
4
Hardware Stores
1
Homes for the Elderly
1
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
6
Investigation Services
1
Iron and Steel Mills
1
Janitorial Services
1
Jewelry Stores
2
Landscaping Services
3
Limited-Service Restaurants
1
Logging
1
Masonry Contractors
2
Meat Markets
2
Motor Vehicle Body Manufacturing
1
Museums
1
New Car Dealers
2
Newspaper Publishers
1
Nursing Care Facilities
1
Office Administrative Services
1
Offices of Certified Public Accountants
1
Offices of Chiropractors
2
Offices of Dentists
4
Offices of Lawyers
2
Offices of Other Holding Companies
1
Offices of Podiatrists
1
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors
1
Pharmacies and Drug Stores
3
Precision Turned Product Manufacturing
1
Professional Employer Organizations
1
Residential Remodelers
3
Savings Institutions
1
Sawmills
1
School and Employee Bus Transportation
1
Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars
1
Solid Waste Collection
1
Solid Waste Landfill
1
Steel Foundries (except Investment)
1
Tour Operators
1
Veterinary Services
1
Wholesale Trade Agents and Brokers
3
Wired Telecommunications Carriers
1
Wood Window and Door Manufacturing
1

Forming a Company in Scottdale, Pennsylvania

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.

The entity you form can be a traditional C-corporation, a Limited Liability Company (LLC), or an S-corporation.

Incorporation 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 Pennsylvania, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Pennsylvania. In fact, you are allowed to incorporate in any state you would like to. 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 ESOP Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an attorney. Finally, if you are starting a business in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, our information on Incorporating in Pennsylvania may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Pennsylvania.

Do You Need a Business Plan?

Having a business plan is critical in maximizing the prospects of your new company. Indeed, a business plan describes what you plan to do with the business and how you plan to do it. Not having a business plan makes you more prone to becoming a business failure statistic.

If you want more information on writing business plans, we recommend reading Business Plan Outsourcing. A great resource for business planning assistance is the face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Pennsylvania.

Getting the Word Out About Your New Company

To grow your Scottdale business, you need a excellent marketing plan.

There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Advertising in Magazines 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.

Learning More About Entrepreneurship

Good business owners recognize that they don't know everything.

Given that you are starting a business in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Pennsylvania universities, colleges and community colleges. We also recommend you look into networking groups or organizations in which Scottdale entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.

Now It's Up To You

Most new Scottdale 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 Scottdale and throughout the United States . We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Scottdale entrepreneur who is just getting started or you are already up and running with your new venture.

More Entrepreneurial Resources for Starting a Business in Scottdale, Pennsylvania

Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Scottdale.

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