TALLAHASSEE – Tallahassee, Florida has been named a Top 50 City for Entrepreneurs by Entrepreneur Magazine. The ranking comes in the August edition and is part of a partnership between Entrepreneur Magazine and Livabillity.com. Tallahassee is ranked at 46 and is one of only three Florida cities on the list (Orlando #15 & Miami Beach #33).
The partnership of Entrepreneur magazine and Livabillity.com compiled the rankings based on a number of key data points including the number of businesses opened and employees hired between 2011 and 2015, unemployment rates, number of venture capital deals, business tax rate, value of SBA and 7A loans, percentage of college educated locals, cost of living, commute times, accessibility of broadband service, projected household income and population increase from now until 2020, growth of good jobs in high income positions, and Livability’s own livescore rating of quality of life. Boulder Colorado was ranked as the number one city for entrepreneurs.
Tallahassee is no stranger to high rankings from trusted sources like Livabillity.com. Tallahassee has previously been ranked as a Top 100 Place to Live and just this year was ranked the #1 City of African Americans. “Our City is a fantastic place for entrepreneurs to live and thrive. The Chamber is dedicated to driving down the cost of business and increasing the quality of life for those who call Tallahassee home. Clearly, the efforts to grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem are working as our community is becoming more business strong every day,” said Sue Dick, President/CEO of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce.
Kathy Bell, Chair of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and local entrepreneur added, “Tallahassee is one of the best cities in Florida and even the nation for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurism is one of the cornerstones of our local economy and a top priority for The Chamber. The work of our entrepreneurs to grow our community, create jobs and invest in our citizens is paying off like never before. We believe that you can expect to see more recognition like this in the coming years.”
Contributing to the high rankings are entrepreneurial investments such as Domi Station -Tallahassee’s first start up co-working space, the locally produced Entrepreneurial Excellence Program and institutions like the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship. These investments will only continue as Florida State University has recently received a $100 million gift to fund the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship in Downtown Tallahassee opening in 2018.
Tallahassee is Florida’s most highly educated city with more than half of residents holding a bachelor’s degree or higher level of educational attainment. With major universities and great colleges, the student population also makes Tallahassee Florida’s youngest median age city. These factors and more have led to increasing recognition of Tallahassee as a great city for talented entrepreneurs.
The relatively low business taxes in Tallahassee are also a key factor. Recently the City of Tallahassee voted to repeal the City’s long standing Business License Tax at the request of The Chamber making Tallahassee the first community in Florida to abolish such taxes. Actions like this continue to send the message that Tallahassee is open for business and ready to help entrepreneurs chase their dreams.
Tallahassee has a growing track record of taking actions that are favorable to creating a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2015, The Chamber took nearly 100 delegates to Boulder, Colorado to learn more about how that city has built its thriving entrepreneurial environment. “The intercity trip to Boulder, the city ranked #1 in the Entrepreneur Magazine and Livabillity.com ratings, has proven to be a great investment of our time and resources. We learned so much studying their Start-Up Community that we have been able to bring back ideas and launch new initiatives that will only help our entrepreneurial ecosystem grow,” said Sue Dick.
The Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce is proud to see that Tallahassee, Florida’s Capital City, is now a Top 50 City for Entrepreneurs in the United States.
