If you are a young entrepreneur looking to make your way in the business world, where you establish your company can go a long way in determining your long-term success. And if you’re in search of the best location, a new study from LendingTree has listed the top 10 cities in the US with the youngest business founders to give you some ideas — most of which might not even be on your radar.
In the study, LendingTree compared the age of business founders in the 50 largest US cities. The information was gathered from the LendingTree Small Business Marketplace and results were compiled based on the ages of founders in the 50 largest U.S. cities at the tie their businesses were founded.
In a post on the official LendngTree site, content writer Elyssa Kirkham says nearly a third of Americans have thought about starting their own business — according to a LendingTree survey.
But Kirkham adds, “Before launching a business, however, it’s worthwhile to consider your location and how friendly it would be to a new and growing company. The better the location you choose, the faster you can work toward founding and building your business.”
The information for the study came from anonymized data of borrowers seeking business loans on the LendingTree platform over the last five years.
The Top Cities with the Youngest Entrepreneurs
The top three cities with the youngest entrepreneurs are Salt Lake City, Buffalo, N.Y. and New Orleans. On average the founders in these cities were younger than 38 years old when they started their businesses. Oklahoma City is fourth on the list with Charlotte, N.C., Minneapolis, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., Milwaukee, and Austin, Texas rounding out the top 10 list — but all with entrepreneurs just sightly older.
In all the top cities, the millennial (born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) generations were responsible for founding the most businesses. In most cases, they accounted for more than 70 to 80+ percent of the entrepreneurs establishing new companies.
Meanwhile, the Gen Z group (born after 1996) had the greatest influence in Charlotte where they were responsible for 5% of small businesses. Baby boomers on the other hand (born between 1946 and 1964) had the biggest impact in Portland at 18%, with the Silent generation (born between 1928 and 1945) founding the largest percentage of businesses — about 1.9% — in Austin.
The Best Business Location
When seeking a place to start a small business, LendingTree recommends seeking out a growing local economy, business-friendly tax policies, low cost of living, strong startup network and one where business funding is available.
Kirkham writes, “Being picky about finding the best place to start your business can really pay off later.”
Here are the top 50 Cities
Photo via Shutterstock
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