How to open a business in the USA – what should you consider?

The structure of American entrepreneurship

It should be noted that the concept of small business in the Russian Federation and small business in the United States is somewhat different. Moreover, in America there is a more ramified structure:

• The smallest – work from 1 to 24 employees.
• Small businesses – from 25 to 99 employees.
• Intermediate – from 100 to 500 employees.

The distinguishing factors of small businesses in the United States are called the following:

• A small number of owners – most often it is one employee, or two partners.
• Property worth not more than $ 5 million.
• No more than 500 employees work.
• They bring no more than $ 2 million a year.

Therefore, before opening a business in the United States, you need to determine its scale by regional standards. It should also be understood that the above distinctive characteristics, as well as groups, are not adopted conditionally, but at the level of American legislation.

With regard to start-up investments, for rural and provincial areas will need at least $ 300,000. But for the development of entrepreneurship in a big city, you need to include in the business plan at least 1 million start-up investments.

It is also equally important to determine the market segment. If we take into account the statistics, then:

• About 35% are occupied by companies that provide various kinds of services.
• Construction accounts for about 12%.
• Approximately 10% is allocated to companies that operate in the healthcare sector.

This is followed by manufacturing, real estate, retail. Least popular segments: forestry, mining, information services.

How to start a commercial migration

It goes without saying that a particularly important factor will be the documentary registration of the business, and for this you need to get the legislative position in the country yourself.

When planning to open a business in the United States, first of all, you need to decide on the following factors:

• It is supposed to open a business from scratch or buy a ready-made project.
• The desired or available form of ownership of the company.
• Willingness to pay taxes regularly, so as not to get problems with the law instead of profit.
• The location of a business is important if only because different regions provide different tax incentives and other programs for the development of small businesses.

After you decide on the above factors, you should start drawing up a business plan – in fact, the fundamental document of your entrepreneurship.

In addition, please note that a business plan will be required by the immigration service upon entering the country, as well as a bank if you intend to take out a loan for the development of your business in the United States.

American business opportunities for Russians

Business in the United States is not as easy for Russians as it might seem at first glance. The first thing a novice entrepreneur faces is the complexity of the legal framework, as well as the choice of direction. It is this question that we will consider in more detail below.

Today, experts believe that the most successful would be to open a business in the United States in one of the following areas:

• Notary Services.
• Online sale.
• Professional or household advice.
• Household recruiting services – nannies, nurses, cleaners, cooks and so on.
• Providing pet care.
• Conducting group and individual trainings.
• Restoration of old things.
• Construction, minor household repairs.
• Eco wash, car service.
• The services of a medical staff of average qualifications, but please note – a compulsory license is required here.

If you already have a well-established business in the Russian Federation, then you can consider going international – for example, creating your own branch in the United States.

Please note that investments in the United States are considered to be not only cash, but also tools, equipment, intellectual assets, and securities. So, on the one hand, starting a business in the United States is even easier.

Registering your business in America – step by step

The legal side of commercial migration conventionally consists of the following stages:

• Step one – obtaining an EB-5 visa. This type of visa is issued only to entrepreneurs. As an alternative to such a visa, you can receive an invitation from business partners, and then issue a permit.
• Step two – renting or buying premises for doing business. If we consider the rental of premises, then in the business plan you need to include an amount in the range from 1 to 5 thousand dollars. Please note that it is impossible to register a business without a title deed for the premises.
• Step three – property insurance. In America, this is a mandatory procedure for business owners.
• Step 4 – hiring personnel in accordance with the selected small business scheme. Moreover, the Americans do their best to contribute to this, as new jobs are created.
• Step 5 – legal registration of the business. The rational solution would be to contact a lawyer, as he will do everything correctly in accordance with local legislation.

At the final stage, you need to pay a special duty (this is about 1 thousand dollars) and register your entrepreneurial activity.

Business registration is carried out last – an application is submitted in a standard form to the state secretariat. If the application is approved, a registration and corporate certificate of the established form will be issued.

And the final point in legalizing your business in the United States is tax registration and obtaining a taxpayer code.

After that, there will be a year of hard work. During this time, audits will be periodically conducted in order to determine the profitability of the business. If, after this year, the commission determines that the business is profitable, then the project owner will receive the right to obtain a residence permit, and after 5 years he may receive the status of a candidate for obtaining American citizenship.

Choice of area of ​​influence

Much depends on which region you choose to open a business in the United States, but the most important thing is, perhaps, the tax issue and the demand for the services provided or manufactured products.

Before choosing a region, you need to work out the following factors:

• Local legislation – they differ in each region.
• Tax issue – again, depending on the region, there is a tax rate, and there are also local programs to support small businesses.

But the federal tax rate is the same for everyone.

Information regarding the tax rate in some regions:

• Texas – Local taxes are not taken here.
• Delaware – 8.84%
• California – 8.5% of profits.
• Washington is the most expensive of the above, with deductions of 9.5%.

So this issue needs to be carefully considered before starting the selection of premises, hiring personnel and the procedure for legalizing the business.

Small business in America with medium capital

Some of the most popular services in the United States are catering and retail. In these areas, an initial investment of $ 50,000 to $ 300,000 will be required.

With regard to trade, it is beneficial to highlight the following areas:

• “Islands” or small outlets in the mall – here you can sell souvenirs, small products, accessories, gadgets and the like.
• Vending machines – by the way, this business came to Russia just from America – there this type of trade has already been put on stream and is in demand. Moreover, it is convenient to start a vending business for those who have a small start-up capital in their hands.
• Sale of fresh flowers – this product is bought here much more often than from us. Fresh flowers are used to decorate offices, meetings, decorate your home, and so on. In other words, not only for a gift or in honor of March 8th.

If there is no desire to open an offline outlet, then you can start trading on the Internet. Here, the most popular products will be the following:

• Products and food for pets.
• Small gadgets.

But, do not think that the costs here will be much less – to get started, you need to create a good website that is highly optimized in terms of search results. Most likely, you cannot do without the help of specialists.

Profitable production

This direction of business in the United States also does not graze the back ones, and therefore it is quite possible to consider it to start your business. So, the following products are in demand:

• Craft products – the advantage is that they are produced in small batches, and therefore you can easily rebuild production to fulfill individual orders.
• Manufacturing of small spare parts and parts.

Beforehand, it is worthwhile to monitor the local market in order to determine which products are in good demand.

Should you open a restaurant business?

It is fair to say that the restaurant business is one of the most complex and costly. If you intend to open a business in America in this direction, then pay attention to the following factors:

• For starting investments, you need to pledge an amount of at least $ 300,000.
• It is better to run a restaurant business in a large city. The provinces are not particularly fond of visitors and your establishment may simply be deliberately ignored by the locals.

You can start your own business in this area as follows:

• Buying a franchise is the easiest, but not the most profitable option, since you will have to pay a certain amount to your partner every month.
• To buy an already operating business, but in this case it is hardly possible to get by with the sum of 300 thousand dollars.
• Starting your business from scratch is the hardest option. Better to start with bars and coffee shops.

You need to carefully calculate the items of expenditure, and a well-developed business plan must be here.

Types of business for immigrants in the United States with minimal investment

You can start your own business without large sums – you just need to choose the right direction. It is very difficult for a Russian visitor to take out a loan for a business in the United States – banks look at the credit history, the availability of valuable property, work experience, and so on.

There are two main areas in which you can get started without large start-up investments – this is the IT sphere and the provision of services for immigrants in the United States. We will consider them in more detail below.

IT sphere and development of your own startup

America in this regard is one of the most favorable countries – the introduction of not only new solutions to the market, but also the modernization of old ones, as well as other innovative solutions are welcome.

As of 2018-early 2019, it is most profitable to start work in the following areas:

• Outsourcing – it is not necessary to have the skills and be specialists in the IT field. You can organize the work of intermediary services. Basically, you need to be a good leader and be able to assemble a team of specialists. Of course, you need to have at least a superficial knowledge in your direction.
• Development of web applications for smartphones. According to statistics, users increasingly prefer to use an application adapted for a gadget rather than a website. So we can safely say that the field of mobile application development is rapidly developing and there is a demand for such products. To open a business in the USA is a great option.
• Developing your own product can be either an IT solution for any area, including production, or launching a completely new gadget, technology, system, and so on. But, in the latter case, it is necessary to first analyze the expected demand. The product itself will need to be patented.

You can also organize a web studio, provide website promotion services, and so on. Comprehensive market analysis and skills will help you choose the right niche – choose the area of ​​direction in which you are best oriented.

Providing services for immigrants in the United States

Providing services for immigrants and people who intend to become one is one of the best solutions for starting a business in the United States. The current directions are the following:

• Russian-speaking domestic staff – nannies, cleaners, cooks and so on.
• Providing services in the field of real estate.
• Legal assistance.
• The program of teaching .
• Provision of services for the placement of children in school, universities, arrangement of life in general.
• Organization of rest.
• Dating – despite the fact that most people now meet online, dating clubs in real life are still relevant.

There are many more ideas than experts can write. It is quite possible to come up with and implement something of your own, which is not yet on the market.

Let’s summarize

Business in the United States is not as difficult for Russians as it might seem at first glance. In any case, it is definitely not more difficult than on the territory of the Russian Federation. All that is needed for a successful start is choosing the right direction, having money to start, so as not to get into loans, and legalizing your business.