Top 25 Cities for Small Business in 2021
Biz2Credit Identifies San Jose as No. 1
Tech Hub Takes Crown Despite Pandemic-Rocked Year
Biz2Credit has identified San Jose as the “Best Small Business City in America,” based on average annual revenues, credit scores, age of business, and Biz2Credit’s proprietary BizAnalyzer score, which factors in the local business climate, including rents, cost of labor, and tax rates. , Biz2Credit examined the financials of 32,000 companies that applied for small business loans - including companies that applied for PPP loans during 2021
Although real estate industry experts say suburban markets are booming because city dwellers want to escape the population density of big cities and are able to work from home, new research highlights that strong economic fundamentals in these big cities keeps them vibrant and attractive for small business. San Jose, CA, a major hub for the technology industry, has benefitted and maintained a robust economy for small businesses despite the pandemic.
“Relying heavily on credit scores is a flawed predictor of business performance, yet many lenders utilize them as a major factor in making business loan decisions”. “To make smart lending decisions, a wider range of factors should come into play, especially when you are serving the very smallest small businesses.”
“The technology industry in Silicon Valley continues to thrive, and San Jose is in the center of it all,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora, one of the nation's leading experts in small business finance, who oversaw the research. “Miami, with its diverse economy, remains high ranking. Just two years ago it was the number one small business city in the country, and it is still near the top of the list. It also benefited from being in a state where coronavirus mitigation restrictions on business were less severe.”
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit CEO
Top 25 Cities for Small Business in 2021
(with 2019 ranking in parenthesis)
Biz2Credit defined "small businesses" as companies having fewer than 250 employees or less than $10 million in annual revenues.
Top 10 Metro Areas By
Annual Revenue
Small businesses in technology hubs are booming.
“Many of these companies can easily allow their employees to work from home, which actually has been proven to increase productivity,” Arora said. “Places like Las Vegas, which thrives on tourism and related industries, suffered a lot in 2021 because of the pandemic.”s
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit CEO
Top 10 Cities With The
Youngest Businesses
When sorted by Age of Business (in months), cities in the Midwest and South had the youngest average age of business, an indication of startup activity and growth.
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit CEO
“With the exception of Indianapolis, which is a major logistics hub, start-up activity was strongest in warm weather places like Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Houston,” Arora said
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit CEO
Top 10 Metro Areas By
Credit Score
When sorted by Credit Score, tech hubs, such as San Jose San Francisco, New York, and Boston showed the highest numbers.
“Credit scores are usually better in areas where annual revenues are strong,” Arora explained.
Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit CEO
About the Biz2Credit Best Small Business Cities in America Study
Biz2Credit analyzed nearly30,000 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 herefor 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 thetop 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.
www.biz2credit.com or follow Biz2Credit on twitter@Biz2Credit, Facebook, and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biz2credit-inc.