Byte of Prevention Blog

by Jay Reeves |

Raleigh and Charlotte on List of Top Startup Cities

If you practice in Charlotte or Raleigh and are looking for new clients, try brushing up on your skills at representing startups and mom-and-pop shops.

Both cities made the list of the Top 25 for 2019 Small Business Growth. In addition, both landed in the top 10 for attracting startups. Read the Biz2Credit Top 25 list here.

Number one on the list was Miami, followed by San Jose, San Francisco and New York City. The rankings were based on financial data – including cash flow, debt-to-income ratio and taxes – from nearly 30,000 companies that applied for small business financing in 2018. Small businesses were defined as companies with fewer than 250 employees or less than $10 million in annual revenues.

Considered along with the business data were characteristics of the host cities, including tourism, international trade, media and telecommunications, and finance.

A key variable was Age of Business, which is an indication of startup growth.

“Cities in the south and west, such as Oklahoma City, Nashville, Raleigh, Las Vegas, and Charlotte had the youngest average age of business,” according to this article in Forbes.

Top 25 Cities for Small Business in 2019

  1. Miami, FL (No. 3 in 2018)
  2. San Jose, CA (No. 2)
  3. San Francisco, CA (No. 4)
  4. New York, NY (No. 1)
  5. San Diego, CA (No. 9)
  6. Los Angeles, CA (No. 5)
  7. Boston, MA (Unranked)
  8. Sacramento, CA (No. 10)
  9. Baltimore, MD (No. 16)
  10. Washington, DC (No. 7)
  11. Philadelphia, PA (No. 22)
  12. Chicago, IL (No. 12)
  13. Seattle, WA (No. 14)
  14. Riverside, CA (No. 6)
  15. Minneapolis, MN (Unranked)
  16. Phoenix, AZ (No. 11)
  17. Las Vegas, NV (No. 18)
  18. Charlotte, NC (No. 24)
  19. Nashville, TN (Unranked)
  20. Raleigh, NC (Unranked)
  21. Detroit, MI (No. 20)
  22. Oklahoma City, OK (Unranked)
  23. Houston, TX (No. 21)
  24. Cleveland, OH (Unranked)
  25. Pittsburgh, PA (Unranked)

Top 10 Cities for Startup Growth

(average age of business in months)

  1. Oklahoma City, OK 41
  2. Nashville, TN 47
  3. Raleigh, NC 47
  4. Las Vegas, NV 52
  5. Charlotte, NC 57
  6. Cleveland, OH 59
  7. Sacramento, CA 60
  8. Seattle, WA 63
  9. San Jose, CA 63
  10. Detroit, MI 63

 

About the Author

Jay Reeves

Jay Reeves practiced law in North Carolina and South Carolina. He was Legal Editor at Lawyers Weekly and Risk Manager at Lawyers Mutual. He is the author of The Most Powerful Attorney in the World, a collection of short stories from a law life well-lived, which as the seasons pass becomes less about law and liability and more about loss, love, longing, laughter and life's lasting luminescence.

Read More by Jay >

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