If entrepreneurs want to enhance their chances of succeeding with a new restaurant, they should grab a map of Oklahoma City and start hunting for sites, according to a new study.
The report ranks the energy center as the best large city in the nation to launch a small business like a restaurant, largely because of the business environment. Oklahoma City scored high on such factors as job growth and the five-year survival rate of ventures.
Best large cities to open a small business
It also scored high on the subranking of cities by their business affordability.
Most and least expensive cities
Oklahoma City was one of the more populous cities to rank among the top 10 locations overall. Included were such remote municipalities as Sioux Falls, S.D. (third), Missoula, Mont. (fourth), Bismarck, N.D. (sixth), and Cheyenne, Wyo. (seventh). But No. 2 was Austin, Texas, the fourth largest city by population in the nation’s second largest state restaurant market.
The Best Large Cities to Start a Business ranking was compiled by WalletHub, a website that provides users with credit scores and credit reports. The list was based on a variety of criteria, from real estate costs to the availability of labor, access to capital and historic revenue growth.
It found that the five worst cities in which to open a restaurant or other small business, based purely on labor costs, included three urban areas of California: San Jose, Irvine and Fremont. The absolute worst, the study indicated, is Pearl City, Hawaii.
Columbia, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., ranked fourth.
Labor rates are lowest in Detroit; Cleveland; Hialeah, Fla.; Huntington, W.Va.; and Miami, according to the report.
Detroit had the highest availability of what the study called human capital, while Charleston, S.C., had the lowest.
WalletHub has also compiled rankings of the best and worst small cities in which to open a restaurant or other small business.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.
Multimedia
Exclusive Content
For Starbucks, 2 years of change hasn't yielded promised results
The Bottom Line: The coffee shop giant’s sales struggles worsened earlier this year, despite a flurry of efforts to improve operations and employee satisfaction.
Nando's Americanizes its menu a bit as U.S. expansion continues
Behind the Menu: Favorites like mac and cheese, bowls and salads join the fast casual’s Afro-Portuguese-rooted dishes, including the signature peri-peri chicken.
The consumer is cutting back, but not everywhere
The Bottom Line: Early earnings from major restaurant chains suggest the consumer has taken a distinct turn for the worse so far in 2024.