Growing Small Business

A recent Bizjournals study (www.bizjournals.com) evaluated the top 75 metropolitan areas in the U.S. for small business growth. Orlando, Florida ranked first, as the best market for small business. Rounding out the top five markets are Sarasota-Bradenton (Florida), Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Jacksonville (Florida). Since 2000, each of these markets has experienced rapid growth in population, employment and the number of small businesses.

Bizjournals also ranked the leaders in three additional categories related to small business. The top five markets with the highest ratio of small businesses per 100,000 residents are Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Bridgeport-Stamford (Connecticut), Sarasota-Bradenton, Denver and Seattle.

From 2000 to 2005, the markets experiencing the strongest growth of small businesses per 100,000 residents were Sarasota-Bradenton, San Diego, Jacksonville, Orlando and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks (California). Meanwhile, the markets with the largest absolute growth in the number of small businesses were Las Vegas, Orlando, Sarasota-Bradenton, Riverside-San Bernardino (California) and Jacksonville.