How to Start a Small Business in Kansas (KS)

Kansas’s Most Popular Businesses

When you are planning to open your own business, you may already know what you want to sell or give to your customers. You want to choose something you can invest yourself in and see yourself growing in. In Kansas, some common popular businesses to keep in mind. For example, publishing companies, woodworking, and car repair shops tend to perform well.

Planning Processes

Once you have your business envisioned, the following steps to open it up can be the most important.

1. Pick a name

The name of your business is the first thing people will see before they decide to shop or not. Your name should be a proper representation of you and your values as a store. As well as the first thing they see, your name is how they will refer to you and share your store with friends and family. The name you choose should be something easy and catchy for customers to be able to remember.

In Kansas, there are some rules to keep in mind before choosing a business name, but don’t let those stop your creative process or making the perfect store. You should still write down a list of names that come to mind and go for the name that excites you and see what happens.

2.  Conduct market research

Whatever type of business you choose to open, you will have to figure out the needs and wants of your desired customers. You can figure this out by conducting market research and running focus groups. This can help show you what your competitors may be doing differently.

3.  Choose a structure

To help make your business more credible and protect it from liabilities, you will want to choose a business structure that represents your business the best. You can choose from either an LLC, corporation, non-profit, sole proprietorship, or partnership.

Registering in Kansas

Once you have picked the business structure that suits your store the best, you will need to register it as such in the state of Kansas. When you go about this, you may need to offer up information such as your business’s name, employer identification number, formation documents, and the name of your registered agent who takes care of your taxes. The state may ask for different documentation or certifications to create better credibility, depending on which structure you chose.

It’s All About Location

When you are going to open a brick-and-mortar building, you want to put a real focus on where you are opening the store. Somewhere with high foot traffic, where your desired customers will be, and word of mouth can be best. Cities like Wichita and Topeka are great choices in Kansas.

If you plan to open an entirely online store in Kansas, then you have all the options the state can offer.

Focus on Banking

Your business will make a lot of transactions and go through tax season just as you do, but to ensure it doesn’t get messy or mixed in with your personal affairs, you should create its own bank account and credit card. It will also make it easier for you to track spending and create a credit score. To make things easier, you could hire a bank account or download accounting software to track transactions and deal with tax season for you.

Insure Your Business

To help keep your business safe from any risks or possible liabilities, you will want to look into getting an insurance policy for your store. This could be Workers’ Compensation, General Liability Insurance, or Professional Liability Insurance. No matter what you choose, in the state of Kansas, if you have more than one employee, you will need to acquire a form of Workers’ Compensation Insurance.

Hiring Employees

When your business gets to the point of hiring employees, you should celebrate. This shows amazing growth and excitement. It can also be fantastic to meet like-minded people and find people who will properly represent your values.

To make sure you are going about hiring by the book, you’ll have to make sure you are registered with the IRS for Employer Taxes and that you are reporting new hires to the state of Kansas.

Branding

By branding your business, you let consumers know what your values are and what to expect when they walk into your store. Branding can be a way to stand out from a crowd and catch the eye of new customers.

What do you want your brand to represent?
How do you want to be seen by your customers?

Asking yourself these sorts of questions can help you figure out how you may want to start branding. Another touch of branding could be the creation of a logo. This small picture or set of words is there to help show off your store and make it recognizable for customers all over. This logo will go on things such as price tags, business cards, your website, or bags. You want to create something representative of your values.

Get Online

With our increasingly virtual world, being online can be a very important part of getting your store popular. This could start with the making of a website. A website can show information about your store, pictures, and the possibility to even sell from there. Utilizing social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok is a great way to showcase your business, whether you are an online store or brick-and-mortar.

Online Business

If you plan to open a fully online store in Kansas, this might have crossed your mind already. Making a website is the first step in creating your dream online business, and companies like Ecwid can help you get through each step with ease and a helpful hand.

On top of helping with the creation of the website, they can also connect your products to other selling platforms like Facebook and Instagram. When your products are located on more sites, you will get more virtual traffic and more sales because of it. Ecwid wants to see your online store succeed, and they do that by allowing you to see all your sales from one simple dashboard. You can see your sales on each platform and even what inventory needs to be filled from that dashboard. If an online store is something you want to have, Ecwid could become your best friend.

Marketing

Marketing is the next step in making all those sales you dream about. Whether you want to do online or offline marketing, you should have a set budget. Depending on the size of your business and your goals, $250 to $1,500 could be spent a month towards marketing.

If you focus on offline marketing, this budget can go towards business cards, pamphlets, signage, and community events.
The other side of this could look like online marketing, where you could pay for ad space on Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube. No matter what, having business pages on these platforms can be beneficial.

A good mix of the two could be the usage of Google My Business. This is a free opportunity to connect with local customers and give some brief information about your store.

The tried and true usage of email and text message subscriptions can help create repeat customers and show customers new deals or products coming out.

Opening up a business that you can be proud of and grow within doesn’t have to be scary. Take that leap and open the store of your dreams in Kansas.