Ten percent of the United States workforce — 15.3 million people — work for themselves, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In honor of National Small Business Week, a recent study sought out the best cities for starting a business, and Houston came in at No. 13.
WalletHub, a personal financial website, used 19 key metrics — such as five-year business-survival rate and office-space affordability — to compare 100 cities in the U.S.
Houston ranked highest in the business environment category with a No. 4 ranking. This ranking considered startups per capita, average growth of business revenue, length of an average work week, etc.
The other two rankings were access to resources and business costs. For those, Houston ranked No. 55 and No. 67, respectively.
The population of Houstonians starting new companies is growing every year. According to the Greater Houston Partnership's data, the greater Houston area added 11,700 firms between 2013 to 2018 — an average addition of 2,340 per year.
Aside from the unclassified new businesses starting up in Houston, the most popular industries for new companies are restaurants, individual and family services, and computer systems design and related services, per the GHP. Within computer systems alone, the region added almost 700 new companies over the past five years.
In a city named the most diverse in the country, about one-third (31.6 percent) of all Houston firms are minority-owned, according to the GHP. Asians own 17.6 percent, Hispanics 10.1 percent, Blacks 3.5 percent, and Native Americans, Hawaiians and other groups 0.4 percent. Houston was recently ranked as a top city for minority entrepreneurial success.
Meanwhile, one in five firms (20.5 percent) is female-owned — one in seven (13.8 percent) is equally male/female-owned. While the data varies slightly, another recent study found that Houston had the 7th most startups with female owners.
Perhaps most telling for the WalletHub's findings is that the GHP reports that nearly two-thirds (63.6 percent) of all Houston employers have been in business six years or more.
Texas, which was recently named the top state for female entrepreneurs, fared well overall in the WalletHub study, with seven cities in the top 20. Here's how the rest of the state ranked:
- Austin came in at No. 4
- Fort Worth took the No. 11 spot
- Dallas secured the No. 15 rank
- San Antonio ranked at No. 16
- Irving came in at No. 17
- Laredo was named No. 18
- Lubbock missed the top 20, but took the No. 23 spot