Texas Business Startup Guides
Opening a Business in West Columbia, Texas
Contemplating starting a business in West Columbia, Texas? We walk you through the process of opening a business in West Columbia.
West Columbia, Texas Demographic Information
West Columbia has an active business community that includes small businesses, mid-sized businesses and large businesses.
To give you a better feel for West Columbia demographics for small businesses, we have tabulated the small business sizes, based on number of employees, for business in West Columbia.
Businesses
As a new West Columbia entrepreneur, you may also be interested in the table below. It shows how many businesses there are in West Columbia 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
Should You Buy an Existing West Columbia Business?
An excellent way to get started in business is to Buy a Business in Texas. Follow that link and you can assess several good businesses for sale in West Columbia.
Before buying a business, be sure to read this article: How to Buy 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.
To get up to speed on what makes for a good company name, we encourage you to read this useful article: Branding Advice.
As a final piece of advice, remember that because you are opening a business in West Columbia, it's imperative that you check now that your company name has not already been claimed by another Texas business.
Forming a Company in West Columbia, Texas
A critical step is ensuring that you choose the right legal structure for your new entity. Among other things, forming a legal entity for the business limits your liabilities.
When forming a company, you will select one of many company types, such as 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. If you are starting a business in Texas, you don't necessarily have to incorporate in Texas. 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 are many nuances to forming a company. To learn the fundamentals of company formation, browse articles on our site, such as ESOP Formation. You should also consider getting professional assistance from your business lawyer. On a final note, since you will be starting a business in West Columbia, Texas, our web page covering Incorporating in Texas may be a useful resource if you decide to incorporate in Texas.
Getting Money to Start a Business
Raising money to fund your new West Columbia business is very difficult due to the ongoing business credit crunch. The reality is that there is very little funding available for new small businesses, and you have to explore every possible alternative.
The good news is this site contains dozens of articles on raising money, including one we recommend entitled Business Incubators.
For West Columbia entrepreneurs with great ambition but a shortage of investment capital, check out our List of Texas Angel Investors and our List of Texas Venture Capital Firms.
Getting the Word Out About Your New Company
To grow your West Columbia business, you need a excellent marketing plan.
We have some helpful resources on this site for entrepreneurs who are working on marketing plans. Direct Mail Costs discusses marketing strategy and tactical marketing in a way that should get you thinking about how to creatively promote your business. There are many more articles on marketing on our site. Visit our Small Business Marketing resource section to see them all.
What's Next?
Most new West Columbia businesses underestimate the number of challenges they will face.
If you choose the right business and love what you do, you will greatly increase your odds of success.
We are here to help West Columbia businesses to be successful. 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 West Columbia, Texas
Here are more links that we believe will help you be successful in starting a business in West Columbia.
- Resources for West Columbia, Texas Entrepreneurs - Browse a variety of resources we've collected to assist West Columbia entrepreneurs.
- Texas Entrepreneurial Resources - We've gathered state-level entrepreneurial resources to help new entrepreneurs who are based in Texas.
- Houston, Texas Small Business Development Center - Serving 32 counties in Southeast Texas through 14 business consulting and training centers, the Small Business Development Center Network contributes to the growth and prosperity of the Texas Gulf Coast communities.
- North Texas Small Business Development Center - The NTSBDC Network promotes small business success by providing management education.
- Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center - The Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center was established with Texas Tech University in 1986. This regional program serves over ninety thousand square miles including ninety-five counties with a population base of approximately 1.8 million people. This region is serviced by six centers located in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland/Odessa, Abilene, Stephenville, and Wichita Falls.
- South-West Texas Border�SBDC Network Texas Small Business Development Center - The South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides consulting and technical assistance to the small business community.
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