Starting a business in Charlotte

Charlotte is a good place to start a business and a bad place to do it alone, because the help exists and nobody tells you where. This guide is the who-to-call list, in the order you’ll need them: the free advice, the paperwork people, the money, the office and the marketing. Everything is in the directory; facts about each business come from its own listing or site. It’s a guide to finding help, not legal or financial advice; the people below give that.

Start with the free help

The Small Business Center at South Piedmont Community College in Monroe offers personalized counseling, hands-on workshops and resources, at no charge; every community college in the state runs one, and Central Piedmont’s serves Mecklenburg. Across the line, the Winthrop Region SBDC in Rock Hill does no-fee consulting and affordable training. Our read: go here before you spend a dollar. The counselors have watched a thousand businesses start and can tell you in one meeting which of your assumptions is wrong.

Join the chamber, or the alliance

The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is the metro-wide body; the Gaston Business Association, Cabarrus Economic Development and the Carolinas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce (since 1999) cover their constituencies. Network in Action and Executive Women of LKN are the referral groups. The Better Business Bureau of the Southern Piedmont is where your first review will land.

The CPA and the entity

The first paid hire. Entity choice, the state-line question and the first-year taxes are one conversation with a CPA who does small business: Riad CPA lists entity selection and incorporation; MirchCPA does start-ups; Richard Grimstad handles start-ups through growth; Schwinn CPA in Cornelius and Sullivan CPA serve small business; The Excelon Group bundles accounting, payroll and tax. For bookkeeping alone, Top 2 Bottom, Balanced Sheets NC and Griffin Bookkeeping Pros. For the fractional CFO later, Peak Path and JRF Consulting, which serves foodservice and retail operators doing $2 million and up.

The lawyer

Mullen Holland & Cooper in Gastonia does business law and litigation. Fitzgerald Dwyer in Monroe lists business law. Fidelity Law Group covers business and estate. Johnston, Allison & Hord is the established Charlotte firm. SVN Southern Commercial, MECA and Beacon Partners handle the lease; read it with the lawyer, not after.

The money

Truliant, Family Trust and Nova do business accounts; Uwharrie, Encore and American Bank are the community banks that still make relationship loans. NewStrides Business Finance and Catawba River Capital are the alternative lenders. ABT Payments sets up card processing with no contracts, per its site. First Choice Business Brokers and Business Brokers of the Carolinas are for buying one instead of starting one, which is often the smarter route.

Payroll, insurance and HR

The first employee triggers all three. Payroll Vault, Payroll Plus HCM, Charlotte Payroll and Jen Stevenson Payroll run it. Reed HR, Adaptive HR, Key HR, HR Advisory Services and Employers Advantage do the HR you don’t have. Catapult is the employers association behind 10,000 employers with same-day compliance support. For insurance, CAP Insurance Group, Spivey, The Morrison Agency and the independent agents in the professional services directory; for benefits, Contemporary Benefits Advisors and Carolina Benefit Consultants.

The office and the marketing

Start at a coworking desk: Flywheel Concord, which also runs startup acceleration, Venture X, Minti; the remote work guide has the rest. For the brand and the website, the directory’s marketing agencies range from Lark About Design, which builds sites for tiny businesses, to Knowmad for B2B and WSI Proven Results for the full stack; mjwphoto does the headshot. Core 4 Business Coaching, ActionCoach Lake Norman and Moxie Manifest are the coaches. And Franchise Confidently is the route for the person who’d rather buy a system than invent one.

The restaurant, specifically

Half the businesses started in Charlotte are restaurants and half of those close, so a note for the food entrepreneur. The county health department permits the kitchen; the state ABC commission licenses the bar; the town zoning office approves the sign and the patio. Crown Mechanical repairs the kitchen equipment and the walk-in. JRF Consulting does the books for foodservice operators. And the food-truck path, which the food truck guide describes, is how a lot of Charlotte’s restaurants tested the concept before signing a lease.

The trades and the storefront

A service business needs a truck and a license; a storefront needs a lease and a sign. Nano Sign Group, Carolina Signs and Wonders, Casco Signs, Signs By Tomorrow and Hometown Signs make the sign. Atlantic Wraps and Custom Apparel Source put the logo on the truck and the shirts; Logo Works and Level Up Logo design it. Studio Print Shop and South City Print print the rest. SaniFresh and Crackerjack Cleaning keep the storefront clean, and Sonitrol alarms it.

The one thing every founder here skips

The directory listing. A Charlotte business with no web presence loses the customer who searched for it at 9 p.m. The listing plans start at $19 a month and nonprofits list free, and a listing here is the cheapest marketing a new business buys. That’s our pitch, and it’s also true. The rest of the first-year list: register with the Secretary of State, get the county business license where required, the sales-tax number, the EIN, a separate bank account, and a CPA before the first quarterly estimate is due. Start a business here and learn something this guide missed? Tell us.