The last few years have been some of the toughest ever for business owners in the US for a variety of reasons, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation.
In an effort to help aspiring entrepreneurs, WalletHub has compiled a list of the best large US cities to start a business, and a remarkable number of cities in Florida are included.
WalletHub compared the relative startup opportunities that exist in 100 US cities, using 19 key metrics, ranging from the five-year business-survival rate to labor costs to office-space affordability.
Several Florida cities made it high up in the ranks, with Orlando actually taking the number one spot, partly due to the fact that the number of small businesses has grown faster than in most other cities, according to WalletHub.
Researchers noted that it’s also one of the top cities on the Kauffman Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Index — which means that in addition to Orlando having a lot of startups, those startups also have a high survival rate.
South Florida cities also secured high rankings, with Miami taking the fifth top spot and Hialeah coming in at 17.
Miami is one of the best places for business environment. This category considers factors like average work week length, growth in number of small business, startups per Capita, average growth of business revenues and job growth.
Hialeah also ranked high in the business environment category, as well as Tampa and Jacksonville, which ranked second and fourth on the overall list.
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | Business Environment Rank | Access to Resources Rank | Business Costs Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando, FL | 68.22 | 1 | 13 | 29 |
| 2 | Tampa, FL | 62.73 | 4 | 39 | 26 |
| 3 | Charlotte, NC | 62.07 | 11 | 20 | 30 |
| 4 | Jacksonville, FL | 62.00 | 5 | 68 | 13 |
| 5 | Miami, FL | 61.92 | 2 | 52 | 55 |
| 6 | Atlanta, GA | 60.09 | 10 | 35 | 36 |
| 7 | Fort Worth, TX | 59.50 | 8 | 18 | 66 |
| 8 | Austin, TX | 59.37 | 3 | 17 | 81 |
| 9 | Durham, NC | 59.29 | 42 | 3 | 21 |
| 10 | St. Petersburg, FL | 58.04 | 7 | 93 | 19 |
| 11 | Raleigh, NC | 58.00 | 40 | 7 | 32 |
| 12 | Arlington, TX | 56.86 | 12 | 47 | 65 |
| 13 | Colorado Springs, CO | 56.65 | 26 | 71 | 17 |
| 14 | Dallas, TX | 56.41 | 13 | 46 | 67 |
| 15 | Winston-Salem, NC | 56.22 | 50 | 62 | 2 |
| 16 | Lubbock, TX | 56.17 | 51 | 4 | 50 |
| 17 | Hialeah, FL | 55.97 | 6 | 100 | 28 |
| 18 | Boise, ID | 55.91 | 14 | 80 | 45 |
| 19 | Reno, NV | 55.27 | 45 | 12 | 48 |
| 20 | Aurora, CO | 55.24 | 19 | 83 | 27 |
The full report and analysis can be found on WalletHub’s website.