EDITORIAL: Build here: Richmond among best small cities to start a business

April 28--From ground moving to buildings going up, it seems new businesses are popping up everywhere in Richmond.

And that's a great thing to see. It also shows a recent study may be on to something.

Richmond was recently ranked in the top 100 small cities in which to start a business in a report by WalletHub, a personal finance website. Richmond, one of four Kentucky cities to make it in the top 100, ranked 86th out of more than 1,200 small cities in the report, which ranked cities on metrics including business environment, access to resources and business costs.

The area in which Richmond ranked best was in access to resources, which includes factors such as financing accessibility, investor access, human resource availability and workforce educational attainment. The city ranked 72nd in the category. It also ranked well in terms of business cost.

"Both of these categories -- business cost and access to resources -- should be an enormous competitive advantage for recruiting new business, young entrepreneurs, existing corporations, and families," said Tom Martin, executive director for the Center for Economic Development, Entrepreneurship & Technology at Eastern Kentucky University.

While Richmond ranked well in two areas, it struggled in business environment, coming in at 1,009th. The business environment ranking looked at factors such as average commute time, average length of work week, average revenue per business and industry variety.

Although Richmond ranks well, this shows there is still plenty of work to be done to make it an attractive place for businesses to continue to locate.

Martin said two things Richmond needs to think about most are reducing regulations to be more business friendly and providing access to capital.

Still, there is a lot to like about what Richmond and Madison County have to offer, including the area's location on Interstate 75.

No matter what though, those looking to start a business should be sure the city, whether it is Richmond or another, is conducive to the business type they're wanting to open.

"If you're starting the coffee shop, that's a lot different than if you're starting an aerospace company," Martin said.

However, many have taken notice that Richmond is a great place to start a business with much opportunity. We hope others realize this is a great place to build too.

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