Clients looking to open a business this year might want to stayclose to these big U.S. cities to ensure their success. WalletHubrecently analyzed startup opportunities in the 150 mostpopulated U.S. cities in order to find entrepreneurs' best bet tomaximize their chances for long-term prosperity.
|From restaurant owners to high-tech startups, new businessowners have a lot to take into account when starting theirventures. As their agent, it's your job to make sure they haveadequate insurance for all their needs — whichcan vary depending on the risks unique to the areas they arein.
|WalletHub ranked 150 cities by comparing them across three keyarea: business environment, access to resources and costs.WalletHub identified 16 relevant metrics spread through the threeareas. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau,Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Venture Capital Association,Yelp, Indeed.com, U.S. News & World Report, the TaxFoundation, Areavibes, Council for Community and EconomicResearch, LoopNet and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.,WalletHub ranked the cities from 0 to 100 in eachmetric(where 100 represents the most favorable conditions and 0 theleast).
|Those 16 metrics are:
|Business environment (50 points total)
- |
- Length of average work week.
- Average growth of number of small businesses.
- Number of startups per 100,000 residents.
- Average growth of business revenues.
- Five-year business-survival rate.
- Industry variety.
Access to resources (25 points total)
- |
- Financing accessibility (this metric was calculated by dividingthe total annual value of small-business loans by the total numberof small businesses).
- Venture investment (amount) per capita.
- Prevalence of investors.
- Human-capital availability (this metric was calculated bysubtracting the unemployment rate by the number of job openings pernumber of population in labor force).
- Higher education assets (average university score and number ofstudents enrolled per capita).
- College-educated workforce (this metric measures the percentageof the population holding at least a bachelor's degree).
Costs (25 points total)
- |
- Office-space affordability (this metric measures theper-square-foot cost of commercial office space).
- Labor costs (this metric measures the median annual income ofthe city).
- Corporate taxes.
- Cost of living.
Finally, WalletHub calculated the overall score for each cityusing the weighted average across all metrics and ranked the citiesaccordingly.
|Here are the top 10 large cities to start a business:
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(Photo: iStock)
|10. Amarillo, Texas
|
Total score: 49.70.
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(Photo: iStock)
|9. Tulsa, Okla.
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Total score: 50.69.
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Photo: (iStock)
|8. Springfield, Mo.
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Total score: 50.77.
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(Photo: iStock)
|7. Charlotte, N.C.
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Total score: 50.85.
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(Photo: iStock)
|6. Salt Lake City
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Total Score: 51.07.
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(Photo: iStock)
|5. St. Louis
Total score: 51.81.
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(Photo: iStock)
|4. Lincoln, Neb.
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Total score: 52.03.
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(Photo: iStock)
|3. Oklahoma City
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Total score: 52.22.
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(Photo: iStock)
|2. Grand Rapids, Mich.
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Total score: 52.52.
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(Photo: iStock)
|1. Sioux Falls, S.D.
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Total score: 52.65.
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