Huntsville Ranked Among Best Small Cities To Start A Business

Huntsville was the fifth best small city to start a business in the U.S. according to a new report from personal finance website WalletHub. The city, which is 70 miles north of Houston, was tied for fifth along with Cheyenne, Wyoming.

To determine the most business-friendly small markets in the U.S., WalletHub looked at more than 1,200 cities with fewer than 100,000 residents across 18 metrics, including small business growth rates, accessibility of financing to investor access, and labor costs, the organization said in a news release.

The best small city to start a business was Holland, Michigan, followed by St. George, Utah, and Fort Myers, Florida.

The report was compiled using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Yelp, among other sources.

Some other national stats from WalletHub:

• 24% of business owners say National Small Business Week helps their business. Business owners age 18-29 are 8 times more likely than business owners age 59+ to say that National Small Business Week helps them.
• More than 7 in 10 small business owners say now is a good time for businesses to grow.
• 23% of business owners say companies will use savings from President Trump’s tax changes mainly for executive and investor bonuses. 12% believe it will go to employee compensation.
• 84% of small business owners think the user protections on business credit cards should be at least as good as those on personal cards (business cards currently lack a number of key safeguards).