Tuesday, November 28 2006
Business Wire

AllBusiness.com Announces "Best Metros for Women Entrepreneurs"

SAN FRANCISCO -- AllBusiness.com, Inc. (www.allbusiness.com), a leading online resource for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), today announced the results of their "Best Metros for Women Entrepreneurs" national study. The study revealed that Raleigh-Cary, NC tops the list and that several metros in Utah are ideal for women seeking to start and grow a small to mid-size business, among other

Commissioned by AllBusiness.com, the first part of the two-phase study was conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, which surveyed nearly 700 SMB executives about what attributes were most important to them in terms of business location. There were six attributes where women were much more likely than men to assign high importance: low crime rate, low property tax rates, high household income, modest real estate prices, rapid population growth and pedestrian-friendly.

For the second phase of the study, AllBusiness.com partnered with consultant Brad Edmondson and Sperling's Best Places, to analyze federal and local government data to identify which cities best exhibited these traits along with traits of economic growth and business incubation. The results were separated by population into small, medium, large and overall metropolitan area rankings. Raleigh-Cary, NC topped the overall list, with four Utah metros - Provo-Orem, St. George, Ogden-Clearfield and Logan rounding out the rest of the top five, in respective order.

"Our study was unique because, we let our audience decide what criteria are most important in terms of geographic location. The results are fascinating. The typical hot economy metros that make these types of lists are absent and four of the five metropolitan areas in Utah are in the overall top ten," said AllBusiness.com CEO Peter Horan. "We found that women entrepreneurs say they are looking for a balance of factors that show a strong geographic tendency to be found in the Rocky Mountain States, with 13 of the 30 metros ranked by size being located there. Additionally, college towns like Iowa City, IA, Boulder, CO, and Logan, UT dominate the list of small and medium metros, which shows the strong connection between academic research and business development in a knowledge-driven economy."

Article on allbusiness.com