WalletHub just announced 2015’s Best Cities to Start a Business, their ranking of the 150 highest populated cities in the US. Cities were ranked on 13 metrics: Access to resources
Accessibility of financing (total value of small business loans / number of businesses)Cost of office space (per square foot) Availability of employees (job openings – number of people unemployed) Median annual income (labor costs)
Business environment
Corporate taxesCost of livingAverage length of a workdayEducational level of the workforce (percentage with a bachelor’s degree or more)Entrepreneurial activityFive-year survival rateNumber of small businesses per capitaIndustry variety Small business friendliness
Thanks to all these metrics – going beyond just startup activity and availability of funding – the cities between the coasts are able to shine. As you’ll see below, only a few of the top 20 are on a coast, and the ones that are happen to be in the Southeast. So these aren’t the top cities for tech startups, per se, but for entrepreneurial activity in general:
1. Shreveport, LA
2. Tulsa, OK
3. Springfield, MO
#2 shortest average workday #2 cheapest office space
4. Chattanooga, TN
5. Jackson, MS
6. Sioux Falls, SD
#1 in small businesses per capita
7. Memphis, TN
8. Augusta, GA
9. Greensboro, NC
10. Columbus, GA
#4 longest average workday#4 cheapest office space
11. Fort Wayne, IN
12. Amarillo, TX
#2 in accessibility of financing
13. Columbus, OH
14. New Orleans, LA
15. Birmingham, AL
#5 lowest annual income
16. Wichita, KS
17. Grand Rapids, MI
18. Laredo, TX
#5 in accessibility of financing Office space is half as cheap as NYC
19. Winston-Salem, NC
20. Nashville, TN
Data for 2015’s Best Cities to Start a Business came from the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indeed.com, the Kauffman Foundation, the Tax Foundation, the Council for Community and Economic Research, Thumbtack, LoopNet, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Image credit: Flickr / Lindsay Attaway / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
