NEW YORK, May 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biz2Credit has identified Miami as the “Best Small Business City in America,” based on a weighted average that includes annual revenue, credit score, age of business (in months), and the company’s proprietary BizAnalyzer score that factors in cash flow, debt-to-income ratio, taxes and other data. In its computation, Biz2Credit examined the financials of nearly 30,000 companies that applied for small business financing in 2018.
“Miami is the Gateway to Latin America,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora, one of the nation's leading experts in small business finance, who oversaw the research. “The city has a diverse economy, and it is in the midst of a real estate and construction boom. It also is a hub for travel and tourism, and has a growing IT sector. Miami is a hot place for many reasons besides the weather.”
"We were able to uncover some really good opportunities that allowed us to grow," said Jeison German of the Jeison German Group, a four-year-old consulting company with $1.5 million in annual revenues that provides technology and merchant services for startups, small businesses and middle market size companies. "My business is going to quadruple what we did last year.”
“We have been fortunate to service the small business community in Miami since 2000. Miami continues to offer a dynamic and friendly business climate powered by a multicultural workforce and emerging opportunities across a multitude of industries,” said Manuel Chinea, COO of Popular Bank. “We find our small business customers in Miami area leveraging their growth opportunities by investing in expansion, talent and operational needs. It is through their day-to-day efforts that Miami has achieved this esteemed recognition.”
For this analysis, Biz2Credit defined "small businesses" as companies having fewer than 250 employees or less than $10 million in annual revenues. The Top 25 Cities for Small Business in 2019 (with 2018 ranking in parenthesis) are:
| 1 | Miami, FL (No. 3) |
| 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) |
Boston debuted on the list at No. 7 Several cities located in the middle of the country that were not on the 2018 Top 25 ranking, climbed onto the list this year: Minneapolis (No. 15), Nashville (No. 19), and Raleigh (No. 20), Oklahoma City (No. 22), Cleveland (No. 24), and Pittsburgh (No. 25).
“Boston has a lot going for it, most notably a thriving tech sector and access to an educated workforce due to the large number of highly rated colleges and universities in the area,” Arora explained. “Other cities that benefit from lower cost structures and growing tech centers were among the other new entrants on the Biz2Credit ranking.”
New York dropped from No. 1 in 2018 to No. 4 in 2019.
“Although New York is still booming, the cost of doing business for small business owners continues to rise. Rents continually increase, and labor costs are high and will continue to increase since New York has enacted a law to raise the minimum wage to $15,” Arora said. “Other mandates, such as paid sick leave, hit small business owners hard. New York is becoming less and less friendly for small business owners.”
The Top 10 metro areas by Annual Revenue
| 1. | New York, NY | $1,273,960 |
| 2. | Miami, FL | $1,198,424 |
| 3. | San Jose, CA | $1,190,007 |
| 4. | Washington, DC | $1,101,367 |
| 5. | San Francisco, CA | $1,088,626 |
| 6. | Boston, MA | $947,624 |
| 7. | Oklahoma City, OK | $943,137 |
| 8. | Seattle, WA | $900,008 |
| 9. | San Diego, CA | $887,370 |
| 10. | Philadelphia, PA | $882,683 |
“New York is still the place where the revenues are highest. This comes as little surprise,” says Arora, whose firm is based in Manhattan. “However, Miami is not that far behind, which is one of the major reasons it ranked No. 1 overall.”
When sorted by Age of Business (in months), cities in the south and west, such as Oklahoma City, Nashville, Raleigh, Las Vegas, and Charlotte, had the youngest average age of business, an indication of startup growth. Cleveland and Detroit, two Midwestern cities with growing tech sectors, were the exceptions to the trend.
The top 10 cities with the youngest businesses (in months) were:
| 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 |
When sorted by Credit Score, San Jose was the leader, followed by San Francisco, New York, and Miami.
| 1. | San Jose, CA | 643 |
| 2. | San Francisco, CA | 637 |
| 3. | New York, NY | 634 |
| 4. | Miami, FL | 631 |
| 5. | Philadelphia, PA | 629 |
| 6. | Washington, DC | 625 |
| 7. | Los Angeles, CA | 625 |
| 8. | Minneapolis | 622 |
| 9. | Sacramento, CA | 621 |
| 10. | Riverside, CA | 621 |
About the Biz2Credit Best Small Business Cities in America Study
Biz2Credit analyzed nearly 30,000 businesses with less than 250 employees and less than $10 million in annual revenues from across the country that have been in operation for more than one year. Click https://www.biz2credit.com/research-reports/top-25-cities-2019 for the full analysis of the study and for infographics.
About Biz2Credit
Founded in 2007, Biz2Credit has arranged more than $2 billion in small business financing and has several times been named to Crain’s New York’s Fast 50 and was recently ranked among the top 200 fast-growing companies on Deloitte's 2018 Technology Fast 500. Biz2Credit is expanding its industry-leading technology in custom digital platform solutions for leading banks and other financial institutions, investors and service providers in the U.S. Visit www.biz2credit.com or follow Biz2Credit on Twitter: @Biz2Credit, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Contact: John Mooney, Over The Moon PR, (908) 663-2121, john@overthemoonpr.com