Twin Cities rated best for small business operators

Larry Werner, Star Tribune

Published September 18, 2003 SMAL18 in the Star Tribune

The Twin Cities isn't necessarily the best place to start a new venture, but it's the best place in the country to be if you're operating a small business, according to the October edition of Entrepreneur magazine. And, the magazine says, the business climate for local entrepreneurs is getting better.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul area moved into first place from 15th in an annual study of the best cities in which to be an entrepreneur.

These conclusions were drawn from the 10th annual Best Cities survey conducted for the magazine by D&B, the financial-information company formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet. The magazine will be on the newsstands Sept. 23.

In its annual study, D&B measures several factors including the number of new business starts, on which the Twin Cities scored only 58 points out of 100. But on two other factors, the area was at the top of the heap.

For small-business growth, the Twin Cities scored a 96 out of 100, and it was rated 93 out of 100 on risk. These two measures are based on growth in employment for small businesses and bankruptcy filings.

"The area's high rankings on these scores show that its existing small firms are growing well and face little risk of going under," said Mipa Basu, director of statistical consulting for D&B.

Chris Puto, dean of the business school at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities, said he's not surprised at the results of the survey because of the nature of the Minnesota economy.

"This is the first time in many, many years that the non-Sun Belt market has come in first," said Puto, who is quoted in the magazine story. "We're pretty broad-based here and not dependent on one sector of the economy. Our businesses are based on providing real value to the customers and not the go-go fluff of the dot-coms."

Other areas that finished in the top five of the D&B list were Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Salt Lake City, Utah. The magazine's Web site is http://www.entrepreneur.com.

Larry Werner is at lwerner@startribune.com.



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