Looking for nation’s lowest-cost small cities for startups? No. 9’s in the KC metro

A Kansas City suburb finds itself among the top 10 lowest-cost small cities for starting a business, according to a new nationwide report.

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).