This guide is primarily for people planning to start small neighborhood-based businesses in Minneapolis. If you are thinking about starting a retail or service business or working in your home, this guide can provide a useful blueprint. But if you have a burning desire to be the next Bill Gates and create a multinational empire, you may want to look elsewhere for help.

The City of Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) hopes this guide will be particularly useful for new residents. Minneapolis has a wealth of resources to help new business owners, but finding those resources can be hard. This booklet, the first of its kind, provides information about technical assistance, financing, and local regulations in one easy-to-read publication.

Based on its work with more than a thousand Minneapolis businesses over the past 10 years, CPED provides here some practical tips on starting a business, as well as a list of places you can go to for help. The appendices list useful websites and the text of city regulations that may directly affect your business.

This is a publication of the Business Finance Section of CPED. Because CPED is the development arm of the City of Minneapolis, much of the information contained here is specific to Minneapolis. But even if you live elsewhere in the Twin Cities metro area, this guide may be useful.

CPED would like feedback about the guide. Which features are most useful to you? Is there information you want that has not been included? Call us at 612-673-5094.

Download Starting a Business in Minneapolis: A Practical Guide

PDF format, 1.3MB, 37Pages.

Illustrations by Northeast Minneapolis artist Chank Diesel
Third Edition

© 2007 by City of Minneapolis
Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED)
105 Fifth Ave. S., Suite 200
Minneapolis, MN 55401

Visit CPED's Web Site

CPED’s mission is to promote and advance the City's planning and community development goals through strategic partnerships and responsible management of resources, and to support the public interest through implementation of the City's plans and priorities.

The Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) was established by a City Council ordinance that became effective on August 24, 2003. Several entities combined to form the new department – the Minneapolis Community Development Agency, the Planning Department, the Empowerment Zone office, and the Minneapolis Employment and Training Program.

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