Maine Business Startup Guides

Starting a Business in Stonington, Maine

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

Which Business to Choose?

An important decision is what kind of business you want to start. To help you decide on a business type, we encourage you to read Free Business Ideas.

If you still are not sure what type of business to start, peruse the Good Businesses to Start section of our site. For example, you might be interested in our Starting a Dance Club guide or our Starting a Tatoo Parlor guide.

Remember that you are starting a business in Stonington. The business you want to start may already be well-represented in Stonington. Make sure you fully understand Stonington demographics before you lock in on your business idea.

Stonington, Maine Demographic Information

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

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

Business Size
# of
Businesses
1-4 Employees
540
5-9 Employees
81
10-19 Employees
27
20-49 Employees
18
50-99 Employees
9
100-249 Employees
0
250-499 Employees
0
500-999 Employees
0
1000+ Employees
0
All Stonington Businesses
675

As a new Stonington entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Stonington 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
Bed-and-Breakfast Inns
1
Beer, Wine, and Liquor Stores
1
Boat Building
1
Child Day Care Services
3
Convenience Stores
1
Educational Support Services
1
Electrical Contractors
1
Finish Carpentry Contractors
1
Fish and Seafood Merchant Wholesalers
10
Full-Service Restaurants
5
Funeral Homes and Funeral Services
1
General Automotive Repair
4
Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Stores
1
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
1
Limited-Service Restaurants
1
Mail-Order Houses
1
Museums
1
Newspaper Publishers
1
Nonresidential Property Managers
1
Offices of Dentists
2
Offices of Other Holding Companies
1
Petroleum Bulk Stations and Terminals
1
Residential Property Managers
2
Seafood Canning
1
Sewage Treatment Facilities
1
Shellfish Fishing
3

Is Franchising a Better Option?

As you drive around Stonington, you'll conclude that many business owners have opted to buy a franchise, rather than starting a business on their own. Is it perhaps smarter to franchise a business instead of doing it from scratch.

Our advice is to investigate buying a franchise. To help you learn more about franchising, we've gathered a ton of articles on franchising, including Franchising Pros and Cons. Gain a solid understanding of franchising by scanning all of our Articles on Franchising.

A comprehensive list of franchisors is available via our List of Franchise Opportunities.

Sample franchise opportunities include Subway Franchises and Starbucks Franchises. Alternatively, you can browse franchise categories, such as Accounting Franchises and Moving Franchises.

Note on Stonington Franchise Opportunities: You will need to contact franchisors directly to see if their franchises are available in Stonington.

Is Buying an Existing Stonington Business a Good Strategy?

If you have some capital to play with, you may want to Buy a Business in Maine. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in Stonington.

For anybody who wants to buy a business, we recommend reading this useful article: Buying a Business.

Naming the Company

A big decision when starting a company is choosing a company name. Believe it or not, choosing a good company name can be a big contributor to your business success.

Pick a company name that isn't too generic. If you do a search engine search for your proposed name and a billion results come up, you may want to reconsider the name. It's much easier to come up in the search engines when your name is fairly unique.

Numerous company naming issues are discussed in more detail in this article: Naming a Company.

There's one other important factor when naming a business. Since you are opening a business in Stonington, it's very important that you make sure no other Maine company is using the business name you want to use.

Startup Financing Basics

Getting your Stonington business the capital it needs to succeed is not an easy task. To obtain business financing, you will need to hear a lot of rejections before you finally find a funding solution that works for you.

To learn about raising money, we recommend you read the fundraising articles on our site, such as Investor Turnoffs.

For Stonington entrepreneurs who want to raise money for a new venture, check out our List of Maine Angel Investors and our List of Maine Venture Capital Firms.

Moving Forward

You have a dream -- starting a business in Stonington. 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 Stonington businesses to be successful. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Stonington 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 Stonington, Maine

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

  • Resources for Stonington, Maine Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Stonington entrepreneurs.
  • Maine Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Maine.
  • Maine Small Business Development Center - Maine Small Business Development Centers and its technology-focused group, the Maine Small Business & Technology Development Centers, provide comprehensive business management assistance, training, resource and information services to Maine's entrepreneurs and small business owners.

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