East Chicago tops the new list.
Best Indiana Towns to Start a Business
Looking to start a business in a small city in
Indiana? Your best bet is East Chicago, according to a new study.
A 2016 study by personal finance site Wallethub looked at more than 1,200 U.S. cities with populations between
25,000 and 100,000. It ranked East Chicago No. 14 in the country for starting a
business, and No. 1 in the state.
Other local cities in the top 300 in the country
were:
Columbus (85)
Gary (90)
Goshen (119)
New Albany (129)
Richmond (136)
Muncie (158)
Lafayette (174)
The study looked at three main factors: business
environment (including startup rate, industry variety and average revenue per
business), access to resources (including financing, investors and employees),
and business costs (including office space affordability, cost of living and
corporate taxes).
It ranked Holland, Michigan, the best small city
in the country to start a business, with Suisun City, California, coming in
last. California cities take up the last 24 spots on the list.
The study also talked to experts about how
cities can encourage business creation. “The number one rule when building an
entrepreneurial ecosystem is that it must be led by the entrepreneurs,” said
Birton J. Cowden of the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship at University of
Massachusetts Amherst. “So local authorities need to provide a platform that
incentivizes startups, look to its top entrepreneurs as the leaders, and then
do their best to keep up to allow the entrepreneurs to thrive.”
