Montana Business Startup Guides
Start a Business in Stanford, Montana
Are you starting a business in Stanford, Montana? This article discusses the most important things to consider when opening a business in Stanford.
Will You Be a Good Entrepreneur?
Before you get too far along in the process, 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:
- Speak with other entrepreneurs in Stanford. They are usually very willing to share their insights on the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.
- You should read The Entrepreneurial Personality. It's a good read for those who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.
- Reach out to a trusted acquaintance. Others sometimes know you better than you know yourself.
What Business Are You Starting?
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 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 Opening a United Brethren in Christ Church guide or our Starting a Graphics Services Business guide.
Always keep in mind that your new startup will be located in Stanford. If Stanford 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 Stanford demographics can you decide if there will be strong demand for your business idea.
Stanford, Montana Demographic Information
Stanford has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Stanford demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Stanford.
Businesses
As a new Stanford entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Stanford 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
Selecting a Name For Your Business
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.
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 starting a business in Stanford, it's very important that you make sure no other Montana company is using the business name you want to use.
Raising Funding for Your Startup
Getting your Stanford business the capital it needs to succeed 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 Business Incubators.
For Stanford entrepreneurs in need of startup financing, check out our List of Montana Angel Investors and our List of Montana Venture Capital Firms.
The Art of Selling
Being able to sell is a key enabler to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Stanford or are selling to customers throughout Montana, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
Not knowing how to sell can result in lost customers and minimal market share. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Writing Great Proposals is a good article to read, one of dozens in the Selling for Entrepreneurs section of our site.
How to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Abilities
Good entrepreneurs know that they don't know everything.
Given that you are starting a business in Stanford, Montana, you will want to take advantage of the many programs available at nearby Montana universities, colleges and community colleges. It's also worthwhile to see if there are any networking groups or organizations in which Stanford entrepreneurs get together to network and trade their business experiences.
What's Next?
You have a dream -- starting a business in Stanford. To achieve your dream, you have to persevere, even when the odds are against you.
Owning your own business will be a daunting task, but you can do it.
This site is all about helping entrepreneurs in Stanford 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 Stanford, Montana
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Stanford.
- Resources for Stanford, Montana Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Stanford entrepreneurs.
- Montana Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Montana.
- Montana Small Business Development Center - The Montana Small Business Development Centers focus on the creation, retention and expansion of Montana small businesses.
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