People opening a new business: what they skip in promotion, across 6 opening profiles
People opening a new business are not all the same, but most skip the same thing in promotion: where customers will look for them before opening day. The tradesman opening his own shop assumes old customers will know the new address. The person investing their savings spends the whole budget on the counter. The tradesperson without a shop thinks maps are not for him.
KOSGEB’s table, compiled from TOBB and TESK data, shows 66,602 companies founded and 169,835 tradesman registrations opened in Türkiye in the first seven months of 2026. Six familiar profiles stand out in that crowd, each with its own gap and first step.
Who opens a new business, and what do they skip?
Most are small tradesmen, sole proprietors and small limited companies. Their shared mistake is leaving promotion until opening day. Yet customers first search a new place on their phone, check the map and glance at reviews. If that is not ready on day one, the shutters are up but the window is closed.
Where the six profiles come from
The profiles follow the founder’s story: where they come from, where the money comes from, who the customer is. The scenes are hypothetical, but each looks like an opening happening today somewhere in Istanbul.
Why the gap is always in the same place
Between rent, renovation, licences and suppliers, promotion drops into the “we’ll see later” box. That box usually opens when the till stops ringing in month one: the most expensive moment.
How many people open a business in 2026, and in what form?
KOSGEB’s July 2026 table shows 66,602 companies, 10,313 sole-trader businesses and 916 cooperatives founded from January to July. Tradesman and craftsman registrations reach 169,835 in the same period. That is about two and a half tradesman registrations per new company. “New business” mostly means the shopkeeper raising the shutters down your street.
| January–July 2026 | Opened / founded | Closed / deregistered |
|---|---|---|
| Companies | 66,602 | 16,170 |
| Sole-trader businesses | 10,313 | 10,216 |
| Tradesman and craftsman registrations | 169,835 | 57,992 (deregistrations) |
The other side of the number
In the same table, tradesman deregistrations rise 13.8% on the same period a year earlier. Not every closure is about promotion, but “customers just don’t walk in” is a sentence often heard behind these numbers.
What the number does not say
It counts openings, not promotion. The gaps below come from the opening process itself.
What do first-time owners skip?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- 1. From employee to own shop
- 2. Investing savings or severance
- The shared gap
Two profiles open in their own name for the first time: the tradesman who worked for someone else for years, and the person investing savings or severance pay. Both have courage and a gap in their promotion maths. One relies on reputation, the other on the counter.
1. From employee to own shop
Say a hairdresser with twelve years in a Beylikdüzü salon opens her own two streets away, sure her clients will follow. They know her phone, not her new address, and a map search brings up the old salon. She skips giving the new address a life online.
2. Investing savings or severance
Say someone opens a café in Büyükçekmece after twenty years in the civil service. The coffee machine, chairs and sign are the best money can buy; promotion gets squeezed into “we’ll print flyers once we open”. Splitting the budget line by line: new business promotion budget.
The shared gap
Both leave promotion until after opening. When the map listing, domain and first pages are set up before opening, the first customer who searches finds you.
How do businesses with no address, or two addresses, get lost?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- 3. The tradesperson without a shop
- 4. The family business opening a second branch
- The shared gap
These two have an address problem. The tradesperson without a shop thinks the map is not for him. The family business opening a second branch mixes up its two addresses. One is invisible, the other visible in the wrong way.
3. The tradesperson without a shop
Say a plumber sets up a limited company serving Avcılar, Esenyurt and Beylikdüzü. No shop, so “no need for the map”. Yet the person with a midnight leak types “plumber near me”. A Google Business Profile can define a service area without showing an address.
4. The family business opening a second branch
Say a family bakery opens its second branch in Bahçeşehir. On the new branch’s accounts, the hours are wrong and the phone is the old branch’s. The customer sent to the wrong address leaves the angry review on the new branch.
The shared gap
Writing address, phone and hours the same way everywhere, known as NAP consistency. It looks like a small job, but it decides a customer’s first trust.
What do product-first founders skip?
BU BÖLÜMÜN ÖZETİ
- 5. Setting up a workshop
- 6. From Instagram to a shop
- The shared gap
The last two start from a product, not a shop. The workshop founder gets buried in production and leaves sales for later. The Instagram seller assumes followers will walk in by themselves.
5. Setting up a workshop
Say someone sets up a small leather workshop in Esenyurt. The work is clean, but there are no product photos, no catalogue page, not one link for a wholesale buyer. For hard work to pay, the product has to exist online too.
6. From Instagram to a shop
Say someone who reached ten thousand followers selling cakes from home opens a shop in Beylikdüzü. The opening post gets plenty of likes, but fewer people walk in than expected. Followers who never ask for directions do not come. The reasons: followers but no sales.
The shared gap
A place where buying happens, beyond the product or the account: a site page, a map listing or a WhatsApp line. What matters is that “how do I buy” has a one-step answer.
Six profiles in one table: who skips what, and the first step
The six gaps differ, but every first step falls before opening day. Find your row and take the step on the right this week. Opening a shop? Combine it with the list in how to promote a new shop.
| Profile | What they skip | First step |
|---|---|---|
| From employee to own shop | No online presence for the new address | Map listing and new-address notice before opening |
| Investing savings | No budget set aside for promotion | Ring-fence a promotion share from the start |
| No-shop tradesperson | Seeing the map as unnecessary | Business Profile with a service area |
| Second branch | Mixed-up addresses | A separate, consistent listing per branch |
| Workshop | Leaving sales channels for later | Product photos and a catalogue page |
| Instagram to shop | Assuming followers will come | Location, directions and a WhatsApp line |
What is the shared fix for all six?
Pull promotion forward. For all six, a map listing, a domain, a few question-and-answer pages and one contact line should be ready before opening. The overall framework is in the new business promotion guide, and the order for company founders in how to promote a new company.
Setting it up as a package
Adapte’s Start a Business Online campaign is built for exactly these profiles: people opening a shop, store or branch, workshop and production founders, and online founders. It costs TRY 36,000 + VAT, fixed and upfront; TRY 43,200 at 20% VAT (check the current rate on your invoice). It includes a domain in your name, an 18-page site, 108 articles, 3 social accounts, a Google Business Profile and WhatsApp Business setup. Details are on the Start a Business Online campaign page.
Back to you
If you are one of these six, what you are skipping probably sits on a single line, and there is still time to fill it before you open.
Quick Summary
- KOSGEB: 66,602 companies and 169,835 tradesman registrations in January–July 2026.
- Most people opening a business leave promotion until after opening day.
- Tradesmen and new branches forget to carry reputation to the new address.
- Shopless tradespeople can appear on maps with a service area.
- Workshops and Instagram sellers skip building a place to buy.
- Shared fix: map listing, site and contact line ready before opening.
Short Glossary
Service area: A service area is a setting used by shopless businesses to list the districts they serve on Google without an address.
Deregistration: Deregistration is the official procedure used to remove a tradesman or merchant from the registry.
NAP consistency: NAP consistency is the rule used to keep a business’s name, address and phone identical on maps, site and social media.
Next Step
Found your profile in the table? Take the first step before opening. Apply to the Start a Business Online campaign and get your name and plan proposal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Source: KOSGEB — Business Openings and Closures Statistics, July 2026 (Turkish)
Sık Sorulan Sorular
The saver: no salary to fall back on, little margin for error. For this profile, promotion is not decoration; it is the first tap of cash flow.
The tradesman and the second branch. Both have a reputation to carry to the new address; set up properly, old customers find the new door within weeks.
Yes. In the Start a Business Online campaign, a business without a shop becomes visible with a service area. Google Business Profile verification depends on Google and can take a few days.
People opening a shop, store or branch, workshop or production founders, and online founders. There are 12 places, and applications close on 1 November 2026.
The domain is registered in the customer’s name. The package includes the domain and 1 year of hosting.
Updated: October 2026