Best Cities For Starting a Small Business
Nick Infusino at Law & Entrepreneurship News pointed us to a new study by American City Business Journals which lists several Arkansas communities among their rankings for market areas with the best small business climate.
ACBJ calculates vitality scores for 931 market areas, based on a 100-point scale. The higher its score, the better an area’s economic climate is for small businesses. The ACBJ formula places extra emphasis on the number of small businesses per 100,000 residents and change in the number of small businesses from 2000 to 2002.
The ACBJ study also divides cities into three size groups, with separate rankings generated for each:
91 large markets (2002 populations of more than 500,000)
284 medium markets (100,000 to 500,000)
556 small markets (less than 100,000)
Among the large markets group, Little Rock ranked 49 of 91, scoring near the median at 49.20. While Little Rock was less than a point behind Nashville and Saint Louis, Little Rock ranked above Philadelphia, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Memphis.
Among the medium markets group, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers ranked 21st of 284, scoring an impressive 70.46, outdistancing Wilmington, NC; Ashville, NC, and Montgomery, AL. Other Arkansas cities with medium market ranks (and scores) included: Jonesboro 97(54.95), Fort Smith 179(43.09), Texarkana 262(33.36), and Pine Bluff 272(30.76).
Among the small markets group, Hot Springs ranked 62 of 556, scoring 64.66. Other Arkansas cities with small market ranks (scores) included: Batesville 107(60.13), Mountain Home 197(52.83), Searcy 211(52.08), Russellville 250(50.22), Arkadelphia 295(47.75), El Dorado 308(47.16), Harrison 359(44.54), Magnolia 414(41.92), Forrest City 417(41.69), Camden 433(40.84), Hope 438(40.49), Paraguld 496(35.78), Blytheville 534(29.27), and West Helena 547(25.54)
Data and scores for all 931 market areas are available for download as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Each market area is a separate download.
