6 FL Towns Top Tier For Starting New Businesses, Experts Say

FLORIDA — An entrepreneur may think that establishing a new company is best in the business capital of the U.S., New York City.

Contrastingly, experts at WalletHub say the best large city to start a business is in Orlando. The central Florida metro beat out Dallas, Texas and 98 other towns on the new ranking released Monday on the personal finance website.

When determining status positions on the recent survey, WalletHub analyzed the five-year business survival rate, labor costs, office space affordability and other metrics.

Orlando has a proven track record of rapid growth among small businesses and is an area where startups have a strong survival rate, experts stated.

"One of the reasons why startups are so prevalent and successful in Orlando is that the city has a very high number of investors per capita, so new businesses are able to get the funding that they need to survive and thrive. Furthermore, although Orlando is known as a retirement haven, it has one of the highest growth rates for the working-age population, so businesses have plenty of potential new employees," WalletHub wrote.

Following closely behind, another central Florida town came in second behind Orlando.

Experts say Tampa is another considerable large city for starting a new business because of its low corporate tax rate. This allows business owners to pocket most of their revenue, WalletHub reported.

"It also has a high number of investors per capita, and the combination of low taxes and high capital gives businesses more resources to survive the difficult initial years. The monetary benefits of Tampa are evident in the fact that the city scores very high on the Entrepreneurial Activity Index, which indicates that there is a large number of startups in the city and those startups have a high survival rate," WalletHub wrote.

As a whole, here is where Florida stood on the survey:

• Orlando, No. 1, overall score of 65.03
• Tampa, No. 2, overall score of 63.51
• Jacksonville, No. 4, overall score of 60.50
• Miami, No. 5, overall score of 60.24
• St. Petersburg, No. 6, overall score of 60.19
• Hialeah, No. 10, overall score of 58.93

The remaining spots on the top 10 went to Austin, Texas (No. 3); Boise, Idaho (No. 7); Atlanta, Georgia (No. 8); and Raleigh, North Carolina (No. 9).

Categorically, Orlando ranked first for business environment, 36th for access to resources and 35th for business costs.

Corporations, such as Travel+Leisure and Darden Restaurants., have made a home in Orlando. But, the buzzing town can also be a landing base for new small businesses.

Orlando thrives in local and landmark businesses, like The Drake Kitchen+Bar. Blog Lemonhearted reported local business ventures include the thrift shop OMG! Thrift, food court Mills Market and eatery Stasio's Italian Deli and Market..

In Tampa, consumers looking to buy from small businesses can patron Urban Native Boutique, The Real Ballroom Dance Studio, Tampa Laundry Company and hazel+dot.

See WalletHub's full survey here.