Looking for nation’s lowest-cost small cities for startups? No. 9’s in the KC metro
April 23, 2018 | Startland News Staff
A Kansas City suburb finds itself among the top 10 lowest-cost small cities for starting a business, according to a new nationwide report.
Best Small Cities
by Business Costs
1. Goldsboro, North Carolina
2. Bay City, Michigan
3. Jackson, Michigan
4. Salisbury, North Carolina
5. Sanford, North Carolina
6. Muskegon, Michigan
7. Asheboro, North Carolina
8. Cape Girardeau, Missouri
9. Raytown, Missouri
10. Kalamazoo, Michigan
Raytown, Missouri, lands at No. 9 on the ranking by personal finance website WalletHub — just below Cape Girardeau, Missouri, at No. 8. The rest of the top 10 is filled by markets in North Carolina and Michigan.
WalletHub’s findings were based on office space affordability, labor costs, corporate taxes, and cost of living, examining more than 1,200 small cities (population 25,000 to 100,000) across the United States.
Raytown and Cape Girardeau fared particularly well on the cost of office space, recording some of the cheapest in the nation, according to the report.
Other Missouri cities ranking in the top 100 for low startup business costs included Jefferson City (18), Joplin (49), St. Joseph (56), Hazelwood (67), and Gladstone (93).
Human capital
While no cities in Kansas earned high marks for low costs associated with starting a business, two were noted for their access to resources.
Manhattan, home to Kansas State University, ranked No. 26, followed by suburban Leawood at No. 81, in that category.
Key metrics included financing accessibility, investor access, human resource availability, higher education assets, workforce educational attainment, working-age population growth, and job growth, according the report.
Best in Show Me
Looking at a wholistic spectrum of business costs, access to resources, and business environment, WalletHub also determined an overall ranking of the best cities in which to start a business.
The report suggest a clear advantage for Missouri over Kansas with eight Show Me State cities — largely in the St. Louis metro area — in the ranking’s top 100. Those included Jefferson City (31), Maryland Heights (34), Cape Girardeau (36), St. Peters (38), Chesterfield (70), Hazelwood (75), St. Charles (80), and Wentzville (99).
Raytown ranked No. 187 overall among the 1,261 cities studied. Other nearby Missouri metro markets included Liberty (171), St. Joseph (173), Gladstone (193), and Lee’s Summit (212).
A previous report by WalletHub also lauded Missouri as one of the best states in which to launch a business.
No Kansas cities cracked the top 100 in the latest overall best cities snapshot.
The highest-ranking contenders from the Sunflower State were Dodge City (132), Salina (208), Hutchinson (252), Manhattan (254), and Leavenworth (293).
2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Tech workforce program championed by former Chiefs star graduates its first KC class
An education initiative recently launched in Kansas City not only focuses on lifting up young people from low-income backgrounds and helping them succeed in the high-tech sector, said pro football hall of famer Will Shields: it upends a cycle of decline and replaces it with building blocks. i.c.stars, headquartered in Chicago, launched in Kansas City…
Build-A-Bear founder joins VFA’s board, lauding group as an ‘onramp’ to entrepreneurship for overlooked young professionals
ST. LOUIS — A hometown founder and entrepreneurial icon is joining the board of one of the region’s premiere work placement opportunities for early-career professionals. Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop — the teddy-bear-themed retailer she launched in 1997 in St. Lous — is the latest appointment to the national board of directors for Venture…
Leveraging KC’s resources: How the right people at the right time can unlock a startup’s potential
The level of collaboration seen in Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is unmatched by peer communities, said Jill Meyer, noting it’s not a phenomenon that developed by accident. And it takes transparency and trust, she added. “There is a lot of work that resource partners do to make sure that our companies and our founders have…
Looking for investors? A startup’s first ask shouldn’t be for money, leading VCs say
Most startup founders think of funding as transactional, Darcy Howe shared, but it’s actually relational. “You’ve got to have relationships with people long before they’ll fund and that includes angels and all the others,” the KCRise Fund founding managing director told a crowd gathered at UMKC’s Bloch Executive Hall for Startland News’ Kansas City Startups…