New Jersey Business Startup Guides
Starting a Business in Trenton, New Jersey
Thinking about starting a business in Trenton, New Jersey? This step-by-step guide walks you through the major decisions you should consider before opening a new business in Trenton.
Trenton, New Jersey Demographic Information
Trenton has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for Trenton demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in Trenton.
Businesses
As a new Trenton entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in Trenton 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
Have You Considered Buying an Existing Trenton Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in New Jersey. Follow that link and you might discover several good businesses for sale in Trenton.
Before buying a business, be sure to read this article: Hold Harmless Agreements When Buying Businesses.
Forming a Company in Trenton, New Jersey
A critical step is ensuring that your business is formed as a legal entity that is separate from its owners. The principal advantage of forming your new business as a legal entity is that it separates your business liabilities from your personal liabilities.
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 New Jersey, it doesn't mean you are required to incorporate in New Jersey. In fact, you are allowed to 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 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 Why Incorporate in Delaware. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. Finally, if you are starting a business in Trenton, New Jersey, our information on Incorporating in New Jersey may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in New Jersey.
Don't Skip the Business Plan
Having a business plan is critical in laying a solid foundation for your business success. Simply put, your business plan is your game plan for how you hope to grow your business. 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. You can also get free business counselors available to you through your local SCORE chapter in New Jersey.
Startup Financing Basics
Finding the funds to fuel the growth of your Trenton business is a difficult chore. In fact, financing your new business may be the hardest challenge you ever face.
The good news is this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Microlending as a Small Business Funding Source.
For Trenton entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, you'll want to take a look at our List of New Jersey Angel Investors and our List of New Jersey Venture Capital Firms.
Selling Tips
Being able to sell is essential to your business success. Whether you are focused on selling local customers in Trenton or are selling to customers throughout New Jersey, the United States or even the world, you have to be able to sell.
Good selling involves demonstrating that your wares meet your customer's needs. Let us help you refine your selling techniques through our many useful sales advice tips.
Closing Sales Techniques is worth reading, as it may give you some good ideas on how to sell your products or services. We have many more good articles on selling that you may enjoy reading.
Never Give Up
You have a dream -- starting a business in Trenton. 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 Trenton businesses to be successful. We want to be there for you to answer your business questions, whether you are a new Trenton 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 Trenton, New Jersey
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in Trenton.
- Resources for Trenton, New Jersey Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist Trenton entrepreneurs.
- New Jersey Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in New Jersey.
- New Jersey Small Business Development Center - The New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) network helps New Jersey small businesses expand operations, manage growth or launch new ventures. With offices in every county of the state, NJSBDC consultants help small business owners finance, market and manage their ventures.
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