Best Cities To Start A Business: Austin Tops Business Journals List

Where's the best place to start a business? For the third straight year, the winner is Austin, Texas, according to The Business Journals' On Numbers analysis.

The list was good news for the southern United States overall, with Raleigh, N.C., Oklahoma City and Houston rounding out the top four rankings

By region, Austin won the South, Pittsburgh took top rank in the East, Minneapolis-St. Paul took the Midwest and Salt Lake City was first in the West. The study looked at U.S. Census data from 2009 (the latest data available) for businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

The Business Journals' formula looks at six components to evaluate growth and opportunity including population growth, one-year private sector employment growth, concentration for small businesses per 1,000 residents, one-year change in that concentration and one-year growth in the number of small businesses.

Notably, Austin added 170 small businesses in a year's time during the heart of the recession, upping the tally to 39,350 small businesses. Of the 100 metro areas included in the analysis, 97 saw a loss in businesses.

Comments

[karmaCRM]

03:34 AM on 04/15/2012

There are various factors that to consider when putting up a business. While there may be a number of people living in a place, not all would be your customers. You might cater a niche and in determining that niche, there are some other things to consider.

KarmaCRM.com encourages that feasibility studies be conducted beforehand to minimize errors and lessen costs.

[F4flyr]

10:58 PM on 04/13/2012

no no no ...Austin shouldn't be on the list...and certainly not number one !!...we're a college town with a lot of diversity...SouthXSouthwest is here, yes, but so are the bats...there's a million of them under the Congress Ave bridge...it was 100 deg or more 90 days last year, 27 in a row!...costs are going up, especially real estate....I wouldn't move here if I were you.

[Smirk]

12:12 AM on 04/14/2012

Trying to scare people off, eh? I love it here.

[F4flyr]

12:58 AM on 04/14/2012

don't think it's going to work, tho.