Two Small South Dakota Cities Make ‘Best For Business’ List

It's hard to start a business and even harder to keep it going sometimes. As many entrepreneurs can tell you, bigger is not always better when it comes to city size and where to start your business venture.

According to a recent Wallet Hub study, once again, size matters when it comes to where you start a business. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 35% of small businesses fail within the first two years, and 48% fail within the first 5 years.

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There are plenty of advantages to starting a business in a small city, like a loyal customer base, lower overhead costs, and more. And, according to Wallet Hub, some small cities are just better than others when you're looking for somewhere to begin your dream business.

They looked at over 1300 small U.S. cities and compared them in three basic categories and a number of subcategories within them.

A) Business Environment Rank

1. Average Length of the workweek in hours
2. Average commute times
3. Startups per capita
4. Industry variety and more

B) Access to Resources

1. Financing accessibility
2. Investor access
3. Human resource availability
4. Higher education assets and more

C) Business costs

1. Office space affordability
2. Labor costs
3. Corporate taxes
4. Cost of living

The good news is that two of our small cities landed close to the top of the list of best small cities to start a business.

Aberdeen and Rapid City came in 13th and 14th, respectively. Not bad out of all those other cities.

You can see this complete study at Wallet Hub.