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
Just funded: Four new Digital Sandbox KC companies scaling products beyond survival mode
Freshly announced funding from Digital Sandbox KC is expected to help four Kansas City startups scale their innovations to market with additional access to investors, resources and a growing network of fellow entrepreneurs. Among the first-quarter Sandbox recipients, Basehor-based Mpruv Sports plans to use the new backing as it releases a series of peer-to-peer, on-demand,…
UMKC pitch contest returning with $90K in prizes; spots remain for emerging startups
The 2023 edition of the Regnier Venture Creation Challenge (RVCC), an annual pitch competition hosted by UMKC, is expected to award $90,000 in equity-free funding to student entrepreneurs and Kansas City businesses. Ben Williams, managing director at the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, shared his excitement for this year’s event — set for April…
He’s building a more welcoming (and eco-friendly) KC, but this entrepreneur’s vision comes with a catch: It isn’t a one-man job
Reda Ibrahim’s home is open to everyone, he shared, especially for those who feel like they don’t belong anywhere. “I have a big magnet toward everyone who doesn’t fit in. I faced a lot of racism; I have faced the struggle to be accepted. [When I came to the United States] seven, eight years ago,…
Art Junkez put Chicano custom culture on canvas with a colorful salute to family roots
The Art Junkez — a venture crafted by a Westside-raised brother and sister and their spouses — set out to create “something out of nothing” in celebration of their Mexican-American heritage, Selena Moran and Jaime Calderon shared. Growing up, it wasn’t easy to find gifts that reflected their culture — like something for their grandma…