Illinois Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Springfield, Illinois
Thinking about starting a business in Springfield, Illinois? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Springfield.
Springfield, Illinois Demographic Information
Springfield has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Springfield demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Springfield.
Businesses
As a new Springfield entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Springfield 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 Buying an Existing Springfield Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Illinois. Follow that link and you can review several good businesses for sale in Springfield.
Before buying a business, be sure to read this article: Buying a Business.
Company Formation in Springfield, Illinois
It's essential that you form your business as a legal structure. Doing so will protect 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.
Incorporating 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. Just because you are starting a business in Illinois, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Illinois. As it turns out, you can incorporate wherever you want. However, if you do incorporate in another state, you'll have to register as a foreign corporation in your home state.
There's a lot to know about forming a company. To learn the basics of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as ESOP Formation. You may also want to seek the advice of an lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Springfield, Illinois, our information on Incorporating in Illinois may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Illinois.
Do You Need a Business Plan?
A business plan is critical in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Indeed, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. Not having a business plan is a recipe for disaster.
Before you start writing a business plan, we suggest you skim Business Plan Contests. You can also get face-to-face free consulting available from your local SCORE chapter in Illinois.
Startup Financing Basics
Getting your Springfield business the capital it needs to succeed will be harder than you might expect. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.
Fortunately, this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Attracting Investors.
For Springfield entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Illinois Angel Investors and our List of Illinois Venture Capital Firms.
Promoting Your New Company
To grow your Springfield business, having an excellent marketing plan is fundamental to your beating the competition.
There are myriad resources on this site to help you with your marketing plan. Introduction to Advertising is a good read to get your marketing juices flowing. That's just one of the many useful articles we have on Marketing a Small Business.
Now It's Up To You
You have a dream -- starting a business in Springfield. 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.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Springfield and elsewhere to achieve real success. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Springfield 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 Springfield, Illinois
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Springfield.
- Resources for Springfield, Illinois Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Springfield entrepreneurs.
- Illinois Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Illinois.
- Illinois Small Business Development Center - Illinois Small Business Development Centers located throughout the state provide assistance to new and existing small businesses.
Starting-a-Business Guides for Other Cities in Illinois
Starting a Business in Sparta
Starting a Business in Staunton
Browse All Business Startup Guides for Illinois
Starting a Business Guides for Other States
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