"START A BUSINESS" GUIDES

July 2018 - Borrowed from a Texas Downtown listserv posting

Tips for creating your own guide: 

• Get input from your downtown business owners.

• Make information about opening business available to a wide audience by posting online, sharing on social media channels, and reminding residents and potential business owners regularly.

• When posted on your website, make the information easy to find. If details are buried or too hard to find your community could lose out.

• Include information about incentive programs.

• Include information about resources – small business development centers, funding, entrepreneur networking, business groups and chambers, downtown associations, etc.

• Include information about pop up and/or vendor opportunities. New entrepreneurs and micro businesses might want to test the market before committing to a long term brick and mortar location.

• Don’t make it complicated. We thought Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival had some great advice about this: https://mailchi.mp/saveyour.town/you-dont-need-to-get-all-your-ducks-in-a-row-to-get-started

Examples Guides from Texas

• Austin - http://www.austintexas.gov/page/start-business

• Bastrop - https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/e4df69_f403ec684f52450e84437622ccef267f.pdf

• Corsicana - http://www.corsicanamainstreet.org/startgrow-a-business.html

• Ennis - 10 Tips for Business Success in Downtown Ennis

• Georgetown - https://mainstreet.georgetown.org/files/2016/07/16-7-25-DT-Business-Guide-Web.pdf

• San Antonio - https://www.sanantonio.gov/SBO/Start-A-Small-Business

Examples Guide from across the country

• Downtown Beverly, Massachusetts - https://www.beverlymainstreets.org/business-resources/how-to-open-a-business-downtown/

• Downtown York, Pennsylvania - http://www.downtownyorkpa.com/openyourdowntownbusiness/

• Downtown Blacksburg, Virginia - http://www.blacksburg.gov/business/starting-your-own-business/where-to-start

• Downtown Bristol Virginia/Tennessee (the VA/TN border runs through downtown) - https://believeinbristol.org/business/entrepreneurs-guide

• Downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin - https://www.downtownkenosha.org/doing-business/toolbox/

Also see other Downtown Guides here - http://www.txms-resourcelibrary.org/downtown-stakeholders-guides/