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Et Cetera
In some ways, U.S. cities are more different than alike, and finding the right place means knowing what's important for your particular company. Some random samples:
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The talent pool: full-time college students per 1,000 workers
Boston (highest) 119.5 New York City 107.1
Phoenix 57.5 Kansas City 25.5
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (lowest) 9.8
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Cost of living (U.S.=100)
Salt Lake City (lowest) 93.2Kansas City 97.7
Cleveland 104.1 Riverside, Calif. 122.5
New York City (highest) 149.3
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SOURCE: The Wadley-Donovan Group, Morristown, N.J. Metro areas with population of fewer than 1 million were excluded.
THE INC. 1992 REPORT ON THE BOONDOCKS
Product in hand -- a new electronic atlas -- Richard Smith began casting about town for a first-rate software-patent lawyer. There wasn't one; Smith had started his company in Fayetteville, Ark.
Jackie Stewart chewed the end of her pencil as she scanned the darkening sky. For the fourth day in a row, no planes would be flying out of Anchorage, Alaska. Her shipment of goods from her Great Alaska Catalog Co., in Juneau, wouldn't reach her customers in time for the Christmas holidays. It was the second season in a row: last year the volcano, now foul weather.
Tim Sharp set his alarm, for the following morning he was off to Germany to present his high-tech, superabsorbent potting material, EZ Soil, to the biggest merchandiser of garden products in Europe. This was no small matter: the nearest airport was three hours away from his hometown of Idabel, Okla.
Mention small-town enterprise and you conjure up Norman Rockwell visions of neighborhood hardware stores and five-and-dimes. But look again: a new breed of growth company is inhabiting Main Street. Smith, Stewart, Sharp, and scores of others are part of a wave of entrepreneurs setting up businesses in places not on anyone's list of hot spots. Instead of Salt Lake City or Silicon Valley, they're in towns such as Fayetteville (population 42,100), Juneau (population 26,800), or Idabel (population 7,000).
Start a business in the boondocks, entrepreneurs like to say, and people on the street will look you in the eye and greet you by name. You can spend your lunch hour cross-country skiing or sitting in a meadow in untrammeled solitude. In addition to quality-of-life advantages, small-town start-ups typically enjoy savings from lower office, service, and cost-of-living expenses ("so you can struggle along not making very much and still manage to survive," says Smith), as well as relative ease of access to start-up funds or lines of credit (familiarity breeds trust). That's why George Harris chose Lewiston, Maine (population 39,800), for his $2-million, high-tech manufacturing business. And why Alex Kahler, for his biotech start-up, made the unconventional selection of Brookings, S. Dak. (population 16,300), where, to his delight, business taxes are "virtually nonexistent" and there is no state income tax.
Boons aside, the boondocks have their share of drawbacks. The price of setting up shop in a place no one has heard of includes compulsory adaptability. Smith had to find a patent lawyer in Los Angeles; then, realizing he couldn't market his product worldwide from Fayetteville, he signed on with a Northern California software publisher. Stewart ran around the weather by switching to a fulfillment house on the mainland -- a mail-order outfit in Louisiana, Mo. (population 5,000), whose busy season was the opposite of hers. Sharp can't escape his airport commute, but he sidesteps some trips by reading reams of faxes daily from all over the world.
Are the pastoral virtues worth it? These entrepreneurs, at least, have no plans to move back to the bright lights and big city.
-- Alessandra Bianchi
PICK YOUR PLACE
When it comes to cities,one size doesn't fit all
Everybody loves to see who's on top, which is why so many books and magazines give us features such as the 10 Best Cities for Business. Where start-ups are concerned, no ranking could be sillier. A fledgling company needs a city that suits its own unique needs -- that offers the right combination of robust markets, appropriate business inputs, and support for entrepreneurship. A new clothing manufacturer could succeed in Los Angeles and fail in Des Moines. A telemarketing company might do the exact opposite.
So start by picking what kind of city your company could thrive in. A guide:
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World Capitals
Prototype: 20th century -- New York City. 21st century -- Los Angeles. The cities that are truly international -- in outlook, in population, in business orientation. L.A.'s foreign trade has risen 12% a year since 1980. Immigration between 1980 and the year 2000 is expected to total 6 million.
Up-and-comer: Miami. Unemployment's high at the moment, but Latin American trade will revive the almost-bilingual city.
An Entrepreneur's Dream: Plenty of hardworking immigrants. Vast numbers of specialized suppliers and specialty markets. "If you're oriented toward Hispanic or Asian customers, L.A. is the place to be," says Stephen Levy, an expert on California's economy.
An Entrepreneur's Nightmare: Costs, congestion, crime. Riots (at worst) and red tape (at best). Linda Griego spent four years trying to open her first L.A. restaurant. It took so long, she says, because she kept bumping into code violations. Hopeful sign: Griego is now the city's deputy mayor, working to change its attitude toward new business.
