Thinking About Starting Your Own Business? Read Ahead

June 25, 2015 by

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Individuals as well as businesses of any size deal with financial woes, but if you want to start your own business or want to get into the franchise world, being financially aware of what to expect can help you avoid the many pitfalls that a lot of small business owners and individual deal with in a daily basis.  Meeting payroll and paying for expenses for the business can be financially draining if you do not budget your money well.

For more about this and other topics follow the links below.

Pop Quiz: Do You Know the 5 Basics of Financial Literacy?

Financial literacy, financial capability, financial understanding.

Whatever the name, the core idea is the same: being equipped with the knowledge, skills and tools to manage your money and secure your future.

That’s no easy task, but here are five key money topics you’ll need to understand and put into action to make financial literacy a reality:

    • Budgeting. Financial security starts with prudently managing your money on a day-to-day basis. That means spending less than you earn and saving consistently. Try to save at least 15% of your gross pay for short-term goals, long-term goals and unexpected expenses. Do it first and not with what’s left of your paycheck. Track all your expenses and set reasonable spending guidelines. Finally, don’t get caught up in how others are spending and undermine your own budget.

Plan Ahead to Be Your Own Boss

When Lisa Hennessy’s pet collie was diagnosed with a degenerative disease, she prepared a special, home-made diet for him, and discovered all her dogs loved it. So when she lost her job as a manager for an automotive parts distributor a few years later, she saw an opportunity to launch Your Pet Chef, a company that makes personalised dog food.

“We now make food for over 125 dogs and help them eat healthier every day,” said Hennessy, 52, who lives in Chicago in the US.

While Hennessy enjoys her new venture, which launched in 2012, she also faces a common problem among new business-owners: dwindling funds. Three years in, the business is self-sustaining but still doesn’t pay her a salary. “Now I’m trying to find investors so I can keep doing it and not drive for Uber [to supplement income],” she said.

It takes determination, experience, research, timing and hard work to start a business. And, many fail. But that doesn’t stop people from trying. In the US, 476,000 new businesses launched each month in 2013, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. That same year, more than half a million new businesses were started in the UK, according to StartUp Britain. In Australia, about 300,000 new small businesses launch each year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

10 Questions to Ask When Franchising Your Business

Your business is booming, easy to duplicate and ripe for growth. You’ve always dreamed of expanding to multiple locations. You decide the time is right — you’re making the leap to franchising.

Like tying the knot, becoming a franchisor isn’t an endeavor you rush into. With so many opportunities for failure, it’s critical that you do your due diligence when researching how to properly franchise your brand.

From budgeting for up-front costs, filing the right legal paperwork, vetting trustworthy franchisees, to scheduling royalty payments, there’s no shortage of challenging tasks ahead. But, if you play your cards right, your brand could one day be the next Supercuts or Subway.

Here are 10 essential questions to ask when franchising your business:

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Small Business Job Creation, Lending, and Taxes

June 18, 2015 by

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The statistics for the small business community  are looking good for 2015. Small business owners believe and are confident that this year will be more profitable than last year, they intent to hire more employees, and feel confident they will invest more in technology.  Taxes, new regulations, and other costs associated with the running of the business are not pleasant nor foreseeable, but those are some of the limitations that they can, and are used to dealing with in a daily basis.

Read more about this by following the links below.

Small Business, Job Creation, And Why We Should Lend To Young Companies

Any honest conversation about creating jobs in the United States must include the role played by small business. Collectively, these businesses create the lion’s share of new jobs. The current SBA Administrator Maria Contreras Sweet regularly argues that two out of every three new jobs are created there. So when Experian approached me with a new study that explored the impact of small businesses (particularly startups), on our economy and what we could do to encourage more job creation, they had my attention.

As one of the three biggest business and personal credit reporting bureaus, I consider Experian’s advice and perspective very relevant to this conversation. I recently spoke with Peter Bolin, Experian Director of Consulting and Analytics, to talk about the research. When they dived into the data they found that small businesses and startups really do have a direct impact on job creation in the United States. They focused on the 2010 class of startups and looked at the resilience of the overall US economic recovery and how these businesses have performed in the four years since they opened their doors.

New chip credit cards putting squeeze on small businesses

NEW YORK — New credit and debit cards with computer chips are putting the squeeze on small businesses.

The cards being rolled out by banks and credit card companies are aimed at reducing fraud from counterfeit cards. As chip cards are phased in, magnetic stripe cards, which are easier for thieves to copy, will be phased out. Businesses of all sizes face an Oct. 1 deadline to get new card readers and software that can handle chips. Most estimates of transition costs for small companies vary from the low hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars due to the wide range of equipment used.

If businesses don’t meet the deadline set by companies including MasterCard, Visa and American Express, they can be held liable for transactions made with phony chip cards.

Small Business Owners Want a Fair Share of Their Taxes Back

New Jersey’s Small Business Development Centers are pushing again for an increase in their state funding — which would in turn make the centers eligible to have federal funding increased to the program in a state with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

The network, formally called America’s SBDC New Jersey, says it had its state support slashed in former Gov. Jon Corzine’s term from $1 million down to $250,000 — and then survived an attempted cut to zero in Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. The state Legislature restored that $250,000, but the funding has been frozen at the same level since Christie’s first year in office, 2010.

Officials with the group argue that’s too little — especially because restoring the $1 million state matching funds would bring back almost that much in federal support for the small-business centers.

By its own figures, SBDCNJ helped 534 clients start new businesses last year, and “helped its clients create and save 15,089 jobs.”

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What’s Your Disgruntled Customer Plan?

June 16, 2015 by

64510516Whether you’re an established, successful small business or a start-up you probably have a sales and marketing plan to attract customers.  After all, providing a product or service to them, for a profit, is one of an entrepreneur’s key goals.  A great deal of up-front time, money and sweat equity is spent on finding and selling to consumers.  But, what about after the sale?

At the beginning of the sales process the focus is on the person, the potential client.  How can the product make their life and business better?  All good sales people know that learning what the client wants, their perception of what the service can give them, is paramount to making the sale.  The billion dollar advertising industry was built on linking emotion to a product. 

After the sale, the focus naturally shifts to getting the service to the client.  Unfortunately, this is where the sales plan usually stops, or is incomplete and falls apart.  The attention of the seller can become more focused on the product or service they are providing, while ignoring or marginalizing the person they’re providing it to.  The following is an example of this disconnect.

Kevin wanted lawn care services for his business.  He met with George, the owner of a landscaping company, and was impressed with George’s understanding of what he was mainly looking for — “decent, no hassle maintenance”.  However, the lawn often became overgrown and unsightly, resulting in Kevin contacting George repeatedly. 

At first, he was apologetic and would send a crew within 2-3 days.  Then George started to complain that he didn’t have enough crew to keep up with the overall demand.  He even became angry at Kevin’s “not understanding his situation”.  Kevin wasn’t interested in excuses, didn’t renew his contract and posted a negative review on a consumer website. 

Upon completion of the sale George prioritized himself and his difficulties with his business over his customer.  He knew that hassle free maintenance was primary for Kevin, yet he didn’t take steps to make sure he was satisfied. Having a sales strategy that stopped at the sale, with no provision for good quality customer service, cost George current and future clients.

A good sales plan is all encompassing and ongoing.  It should include the “how tos” for finding customers, as well as the “how tos” for keeping them.  Unfortunately, many business owners work hard to get customers only to lose them through poor execution of the service and poor treatment of the client.

A comprehensive sales strategy includes policy and procedures which address the inevitable disgruntled customer, because addressing their complaints is still a component of selling to them.  If not for the hassle and George’s attitude Kevin would have renewed his contract, because the mowing was sufficient.  Good customer service can elevate the value of a mediocre product and bad customer service can undermine the value of a good one. 

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Small Business Jobs and Updates

June 11, 2015 by

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Analysts and policymakers are confident the state of the economy is getting better.  The reports about job openings are encouraging, and job openings have reached the highest percentage this past April since the year 2000.  One of the concerns now is the ability of these business to fill such mention openings.  The skill necessary businesses are looking for in candidates to fulfill their demands is not there, therefore businesses are still looking.

Follow the links below for more information about this topic.

U.S. job openings hit record high; small businesses upbeat

U.S. job openings surged to a record high in April and small business confidence perked up in May, suggesting the economy was regaining speed after stumbling at the start of the year.

The economy’s stronger tone was reinforced by other data on Tuesday showing a solid rise in wholesale inventories in April, in part as oil prices stabilized.

“This is more confirmation that the economy is indeed emerging from that soft patch in the first quarter and can still pick up even faster in the next few months,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

American small businesses just gave us some more incredibly bullish news about the job market

The labor market is rolling. 

On Tuesday, the National Federation of Independent Business, a conservative lobby group, released its latest small business report, which showed that its small business optimism index rose to 98.3 in May.

But the really positive part of the report isn’t the headline reading — though this did rise to a 5-month high — but the incredibly bullish commentary on the labor market.

The Importance Of Relationships In Scaling A Small Business

​In my Forbes series The Insiders, I share the highs and lows associated with launching and scaling a small business, all through the chronological lens of our own experiences building VerbalizeIt.

In my most recent post, I discussed our fears of not being able to accelerate quickly enough during our time in the Techstars business accelerator program. The focus was on ensuring we had technically-inclined teammates to facilitate our growth.

Another critical component to our earliest successes was the non-teammate relationships we developed, most notably with our mentors, advisors, and advocates. These individuals contributed more to our early growth than we could have ever achieved on our own, resulting from their extensive experiences and network of relationships.

How do entrepreneurs find and convince the right advisors to take part in their journey?


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Some People Get All the Luck – Be One of Them

June 5, 2015 by

64002400There are thousands of legends about businesses becoming successful because the owner was in the right place at the right time, he was lucky.  But, if you look closely at them you’ll find, that while “uncontrollable” good fortune may have played a part in the success, that isn’t the whole story.  The real story is how the owner made his own “controllable” luck.

Many mangers think good fortune is uncontrollable (such as winning a bid or having good weather for the company picnic) and they either have it or they don’t.  But, you can increase your chances of being lucky.  Often, what’s perceived as, uncontrollable events can be managed to increase the odds of working out in your favor. 

For example, anyone who has bid out a job has multiple stories about companies (who they wanted to award the contract to) who’ve knocked themselves out of the running.  They weren’t unlucky — their bids were incomplete, sloppy, late or unrealistic, all things they had control over.  Also, in northeastern Ohio there’s a better chance of having good weather for your picnic in June, not April. 

If you look closely at most “his successful business is due to luck” stories you’ll find they usually have 4 things in common.  One of them is that there is a dose of luck involved.  But, the other 3 are more important.  Each story shows a person augmenting his good fortune through controllable behaviors, which you can also do.

Pay attention – Put down the cell phone, step away from the computer and get out of your office, building and comfort zone.  The beginning of any successful venture is to recognize that the opportunity is there.  There are few things more important in life (work, family and friends) than paying genuine attention to what’s going on around you.

Do the work – After you get the idea take logical and practical risks to do something about it.  Ideas are usually worthless until they’re put into action through a lot of hard work.  In every success story there’s always someone, sometimes many people, who did the work.  As Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck, I find the harder I work the more I have of it”.

Seek out information – The average small business owner gets insulated, which leads to tunnel vision.  Success isn’t a solo act; every business success story has multiple characters in it.  Steve Jobs was brilliant, hard working and lucky.  One of the things he learned to do was to seek out and listen to what people had to say, and then use the information to better his product.  He was relentless in his quest to learn more and do better.

There are some things you can’t do anything about – you’re betting on 3 of a kind and your opponent wins with her straight.  But, you can increase the chances of winning by knowing your rival’s tells (pay attention), learn the odds, rules and psychology of the game (do the work) and continue to develop your skills (seek out information).  Luck is a combination of controllable and uncontrollable actions and events. 

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Small Changes You Need To Do To Help Your Business

June 4, 2015 by

Having a website nowadays is not longer enough.  If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you are loosin54640451g sales.  But before you spend the time and money optimizing your website for mobile devices, make sure it is good enough for desktops before spending the money elsewhere. Ask yourself these questions: Does my website load in less than 2 seconds? If the answer is no, you need to fix that before going any further.  Research has shown that if a website takes longer than two minutes to load , more than half of  your visitors leave without ever seeing if you have what they wanted. Is the content relevant? Good content can engage you potential customer and offer basic information they may need.   To read more about this and other topics follow the links below.

5 Things Your Small Business Should Do This Summer

Summer is almost here! While a vacation is definitely recommended, don’t spend the whole summer relaxing.

Here are five things your small business should definitely do this summer:

1. Get a Mobile Website

Look around when you’re walking down the street. Almost every person is attached to a smartphone. About 40 percent of consumers prefer to use their phone to search for businesses and services on the internet. Is your website mobile-optimized? If not, why not? Make it easier for potential customers to find you. Mobile-optimize your website.

6 Small Business Tips from a Pet Mediator

Big businesses, like Walmart and Apple, seem to just roll along on the momentum of their success and power.

However, small businesses don’t have that luxury. You fight for every little success and every advantage to get ahead of the competition. Some small businesses are so small, most people have never heard of them before.

For example, have you heard of a pet mediator?

Debra Hamilton, Pet Mediator

Pet mediator. What will we come up with next?

What The Small Business Tax Break Actually Does

The immediate tax deduction for small business announced in the Federal Budget has been broadly welcomed, but what may have been missed is the fact that what the Government doesn’t collect now, it will collect later.

As part of the $5.5 billion small business package at the centre of its latest Budget, the Federal Government announced it would allow businesses with turnover less than $2 million to immediately deduct the cost of any individual asset purchased up to the value of $20,000, from Budget night through to the end of June 2017. The estimated cost of this accelerated depreciation measure to revenue is estimated at $1.75 billion over the four years of forward estimates.

But what should be noted about this measure is that it doesn’t change the eligibility for tax deductions of these assets; it simply changes how quickly a small business is able to receive the tax deduction.

Under the existing simplified depreciation rules for small business, an asset costing over $1000 would be depreciated at 15% for the first year, and 30% thereafter, until the taxable value of the asset pool is $1000 or less, at which point the full amount can be written off.

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Small Business Money Issues

May 28, 2015 by

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From retirement funding  to meeting payroll every month, small businesses are plagued in a continual basis with issues about money.  Legislation in Washington  can be helpful or devastating to the small business community, and in some instances small business owners find themselves with the same problems regardless of what happens in Washington.  Does your business need a loan? Do you need money to fund a retirement account for you?  Follow the links below for more news about this and other issues affecting your business.

Loans, taxes, regulations on small-business election agenda

There are no “one size fits all” issues for small business in the 2016 presidential campaign. While candidates try to appeal to all small businesses, many owners want very specific things. A sample of what’s on the agenda of some individual owners and two small business advocacy groups:

Help small banks compete: Community banks whose customers include small businesses are at a disadvantage because of regulations under the Dodd-Frank Act implemented following the 2008 banking crisis, says Jim Angleton, owner of Aegis FinServ, a Miami-based financial services company. While the law is needed to prevent a recurrence of the practices that led to bank failures of all sizes, it places a disproportionate financial burden on smaller banks, Angleton says.

The number of small banks in the U.S. dropped 14 percent after Dodd-Frank was enacted in 2010, according to researchers at George Mason University.

5 Creative Ways To Fund Your Small Business

A look at the fast-evolving options for entrepreneurs on a money hunt—including several that first-time entrepreneurs tend to overlook.

When Mike Shapiro quit his job as a corporate lawyer to launch a group of community news web sites in 2008, he relied on savings he’d frugally socked away for years. “I wasn’t an Armani suit guy at my firm,” says Shapiro, CEO and publisher of TAPInto.net, a five-employee franchise chain, based in New Providence, N.J., that now has 37 locations.

But self-funding the business turned out to be stressful. During the first two and a half years, he poured about $250,000 into his startup, taking no salary while he and his family lived on their savings. And as he was launching the business, his son, then an infant, had to have open heart surgery, and his wife stayed home to care for the baby.

Small Business — and State Governments — May Rescue Your Retirement

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Half of Americans employed in the private sector work for small businesses. That means many workers simply don’t have access to retirement plans. Big firms lure talent with tax-advantaged savings plans like 401(k)s — and even match workers’ contributions, while neighborhood businesses often lack the means to provide such benefits.

But now, the small-business backbone of the economy is slowly rising to the occasion, often with the assistance of state governments.

Here’s one such example from the state of Washington: The Small Business Retirement Marketplace, signed into law last week by Washington Governor Jay Inslee, will provide an estimated 1.5 million residents in the state with access toworkplace-based retirement accounts.

“Employers do not have to do anything but deduct and forward the money — the same way they handle taxes,” said Rep. Larry Springer, a co-sponsor of the state legislation, in a press statement. “We know people are very unlikely to save for retirement if they are not offered a plan through work. The Small Business Retirement Savings Marketplace will allow more workers access to a safe, easy and affordable way to retire in dignity.”

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Starting a Business in Northeast Ohio? Check the Best Cities for Business

May 19, 2015 by

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More than half the population of the United States work for a small business, and  a small business per the SBA is a business with less than 500 employees.  The news about the economy seems to pull small business owners in two directions. Those optimistic and ready to hire new employees, or the cautious one that are still waiting to see how the economy is really working out.  Which small business owner are you?  Follow the links below for more news about the economy.

The Best Places to Start a Business in Ohio

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Ohio occupied the center of America’s industrial heart. The burgeoning United States economy couldn’t get enough of the region’s cars and steel, and in turn, Ohio and other states provided a virtually endless stream of jobs in its workshops and factories.

In the second half of the 20th century, however, the region fell into decline, as manufacturing output required less labor input, and companies left the Great Lakes states for the warmer climes of the Sun Belt. The entire region was categorized economically dead as factories closed and traditionally middle-class manufacturing jobs disappeared.

But what really happened wasn’t quite that simple. Although it’s true the number of manufacturing jobs has declined, Ohio remains one of the country’s most productive states. Photos of rusted, abandoned factories paint a dire picture, but companies and communities adjusted, and the Ohio economy proved to be more resilient and dynamic than portrayed.

Ohio small businesses feeling better about economy

Ohio small-business owners are feeling better about the economy, both locally and nationally, according to a U.S. Bank survey released Monday.

The growing confidence, however, isn’t translating into significant hiring or big investments by owners.

The U.S. Bank survey, the sixth that the Minneapolis-based bank has done, found that 72 percent of the 200 Ohio small- business owners surveyed describe their business as good, very good or excellent, the best in five years.

Still, 23 percent of those surveyed believe the national economy remains in a recession. That’s down from 35 percent in 2014 and 45 percent in 2013.

Small-business owners aren’t the only ones who have been cautious since the recession, said George Mokrzan, Huntington Bancshares economist. Consumers also have been holding back on retail sales and buying homes.

Small business owners bullish on economy, ready to hire workers

Small-business owners in Central Ohio and throughout the state are growing more optimistic about their own financials along with the health of the national economy, according to separate surveys from U.S. Bank and the Entrepreneurs’ Organizations.

Three-quarters of Columbus-area companies surveyed by the EO trade group expect profits to increase over the next six months, up from 67 percent in its semiannual survey released last October.

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Expansion Loans – What to do Before Going to the Bank

May 18, 2015 by

59350241Successful small businesses owners occasionally need additional working capital.  The company is stable and profitable, but the cash flow is unable to support a large expenditure for growth (i.e. additional square footage, new employees, needed equipment, adding a product line).  In these situations traditional banks are still the provider of choice for most small companies.

However, due to new regulations resulting from the Great Recession, owners are finding it difficult to get the money they need.  Even if they’re veterans of the old system and were able to secure financing in the past, they’re finding the old rules don’t apply anymore and are having trouble getting financing now.  And rookies are quickly becoming confused and frustrated by the loan process.

So, what do you do?  Planning, patience and follow through are the keys to getting an expansion loan — three things that most small business owners are not very good at.  But, the banks have the money you need and you have to follow their rules to get it. Here are 3 things to do that will help.

Do the planning – Before you fill out the paperwork and submit it to the bank you must to do your homework.  Talk to someone at the bank and get an idea of what’s required for a successful loan application.  Do you have a good credit score and a large enough customer base?  Do you know what your debt-to-income ratio is? 

In the loan process your good intentions don’t count — banks aren’t interested in your open-ended visions and imprecise ideas.  This is strictly a tangible numbers game.  They’re interested in how the changes you’re proposing are going to create a profit, which will repay them with interest.

Have patience – Based on the planning you’ve done you now know what’s required to submit a successful loan application.  However, after the planning stage you may be unable to submit it right away.  You might need to pay down some debt, increase your credit score, clean up your existing credit line, or implement a new sales strategy. 

Patience, time and sticking to a comprehensive plan is often the intermediate step for many businesses.  They find that their financial house has to be put in order before they can successfully get a loan.

Follow their procedures – It’s baffling to lawyers, accountants and bankers how often small business owners are their own worst enemies.  They consistently make the loan process much more difficult than it needs to be and sabotage themselves. 

The average owner started their business so they could do things their way and not have someone else tell them what to do.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with banks.  It’s simple, but not easy, to learn to speak the bank’s language, find out what they want and give it to them.

Many successful businesses have failed because of poorly conceptualized and implemented expansions; experienced business bankers have seen it too many times.  Although, at times, it may not seem like it, responsible owners and bankers want the same thing.  They both want a successful, profitable business, which will strengthen the community. 

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Small Business News

May 14, 2015 by

62227730To start a business, regardless of where you live, you have to considered the many advantages a particular state or city has on the success of your business. Paperwork and taxes are too cumbersome for many small business owners to consider, so the less they have to deal with those issues the better. The attraction of many cities for the small business owner is the possibility to finding funding, less taxes and paperwork.

To read more about this topic follow the links below.

Small-Business Owners Gained Confidence in April

WASHINGTON — Small-business owners in the United States gained confidence in April and were surprisingly bullish about capital expenditure plans, further supporting views that economic growth is rebounding after a dismal first quarter.

The Labor Department also reported on Tuesday that job openings fell in March. The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday that its Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.7 points to 96.9 last month. It was the largest gain since December.

Small businesses historically have accounted for half of private gross domestic product. The economy is clawing back after being hit by a mix of bad weather, disruptions at ports, a strong dollar and deep spending cuts by energy companies.Data on employment and consumer sentiment have suggested a pickup in growth momentum at the start of the second quarter, but the dollar and lower oil prices continue to weigh on manufacturing.

San Francisco Chamber CEO Applauds Small-Business Rebels

Small businesses take center stage in San Francisco next week, with an emphasis on disruptive technology and businesses that have butted heads with the status quo.

Uber and Airbnb sprang up in this city, beginning as startups testing new, even quirky business models. They quickly transformed into global companies.

Chamber of Commerce President Bob Linscheid says there are lessons to be learned from businesses — startups or established companies — that challenge the norm.

“That lesson is that you must constantly innovate,” he says. “Our city is a haven for innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The Best And Worst Cities For Small Business Employees

Last month, Forbes reported on the best cities for starting a business this year, and much attention is frequently given to the locations working the hardest to attract founders who’ll create coveted jobs. But which cities are the most hospitable to those who hold those positions?

To determine the best and worst cities for small business employees, personal finance site WalletHub looked at 100 of the country’s largest metro areas, evaluating each against 11 metrics that examine the small business climate as well as the larger economic environment.

As a means of measuring the health of the small business scene in each city, WalletHub considered the number of business with less than 250 employees per every 1,000 residents, small business job growth, diversity of industries, percentage of small businesses offering health insurance to employees and employee earnings adjusted for cost of living.

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