GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – If it seems like there are a lot of new small businesses in Grand Rapids, it is because entrepreneurs have figured out Grand Rapids is a pretty good place to start a business.
Grand Rapids ranks #2 in the country for WalletHub.com’s 2016 Best Cities to Start a Business. Earlier in April, WalletHub named Holland, Michigan as the #1 small city in the U.S. to start a business.
Grand Rapids is ranked along with the 150 biggest U.S. cities. Wallethub used 15 key metrics, including five-year business survival rate, office-space affordability, labor costs, and education in the workforce. Grand Rapids ranked #1 for the Highest Average Growth of Number of Small Businesses in the country.
The only other Michigan city on the list was Detroit, coming in at #56. Detroit ranked #1 for labor costs and #2 for availability of human capital, but near the bottom for educated workforce. Chicago ranked #78.
#1 on the list was Sioux Falls, SD. Oklahoma City, Lincoln, NE and St. Louis, MO rounded out the top five. Ontario, CA, Providence, RI, and Washington, D.C. were the bottom three.
