Shreveport, La., is the best American city to start a business while Newark, N.J., came in dead last, according to a recent study.
The WalletHub study was meant to gauge the climate in locations across the country for entrepreneurs interested in launching their own ventures.
Analysts dove deep into this topic in an effort to see just where conditions are ideal for startups and where room for improvement exists.
With an estimated 15 million to 53 million people already engaged in their own businesses across the country and many more considering taking the plunge, WalletHub wanted to see just where in the country conditions are ripe for fostering small business success.
To arrive at its findings, researchers looked at 150 of the largest cities in the country.
Rankings were based on scores related to 13 separate metrics that were divided into two main dimensions: access to resources and business environment.
Individual metrics includes such issues as financing accessibility, 5-year survival rates, office space affordability, corporate taxes, workforce education level and number of small businesses per capita, among others.
Data sources included the U.S. Census bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Kauffman Foundation, the Tax Foundation, Indeed.com and others.
Top-Ranking Cities
With all the key metrics measured, the following cities came out on top in WalletHub’s findings:
- Shreveport, La.
- Tulsa, Okla.
- Springfield, Mo.
- Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Jackson, Miss.
Tulsa took first-place honors in the business environment category while Springfield came in first in access to resources.
Lowest-Ranking Cities
These five cities brought up the rear in the rankings of all 150 locations:
- Fremont, Calif.
- Yonkers, N.Y.
- Garden Grove, Calif.
- Jersey City, N.J.
- Newark, N.J.
Other Key Findings
WalletHub analysts also broke out some of the best and worst locations for individual metrics used in the study.
Some of the key findings on individual points include:
- Small businesses per capita – Bakersfield, Calif., had the least while Sioux Falls, S.D., was among the highest.
- Financing accessibility – Salt Lake City, Utah, had the most accessible while Phoenix, Ariz., and Mobile, Al., were among the towns with the lowest accessibility.
- Annual income – Detroit, Mich., and Cleveland, Ohio, were among cities with the lowest while Huntington Beach, Calif., Plano, Texas, and Fremont, Calif., were among the highest.
- Office space – Toledo, Ohio, and Springfield, Mo., had some of the cheapest rates while New York and San Francisco were among the costliest places.
As WalletHub pointed out, Americans seem to be born with an entrepreneurial streak.
Even so, “innovation is never easy” and, as the study shows, some cities simply are better poised to help residents exercise their entrepreneurial side more readily than others.
