CNNMoney.com finds Kingsport at the top for small business start-ups
KINGSPORT – A just-released report by CNNMoney.com finds Kingsport enjoyed by far the greatest rate of small business creation in the country prior to the onset of the recession.
The report found a small business growth rate of 44 percent, well above the Best Places to Start a Small Business average of 5.92 percent and nearly 14 percentage points better than the next closest community in Utah.
There is much in this report that demonstrates the great progress Kingsport has made in the last few years, Mayor Dennis Phillips said Wednesday. At the same time, we have clearly performed better than most during the economic downturn, as illustrated by the fact that our foreclosure rate is only half that of communities selected as Top 50 Places to Start a Small Business.
However, Phillips also noted that the CNNMoney.com review found that Kingsport-Bristol metropolitan area educational attainment rates lag behind the Top 50 averages.
Only by increasing our education rates across the board will we begin to see our wage rates begin to close the gap on Top 50 cities, Phillips said. Thats why the Board of Mayor and Aldermen has spent so much time and effort in developing the Academic Village. And the uniqueness of our efforts is bringing national recognition by prestigious institutions like Harvard University with the Innovations in Government award.
Educational attainment in the report was measured for those residents age 25-34, citing the age groups importance since they’re newly trained, with up-to-the-minute skills, and they’re entry-level — making them relatively affordable for businesses with limited budgets.
In addition, having a high number of educated young people typically indicates the nearby presence of a college or university, which offers ancillary benefits for local businesses, such as training opportunities, research labs, and a built-in consumer base.
We did not score as well in population growth, which is a secondary benefit of our education focus, drawing young talent to Kingsport, Phillips said. This will help us strengthen Kingsports economic vitality and help us begin to increase our rate of population growth.
Other favorable business development factors include a strong focus on rapid responses from planning, building and other development services areas to cut red-tape in the development process, as well as funding efforts like the Kingsport Office of Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship (KOSBE) and the Holston Business and Technology Park incubator.
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