Wichita has been ranked as the second-cheapest city to have a startup companyin a new study released by the personal finance company SmartAsset.
SmartAsset is a New York City-based company that gives advice to people who are looking into student loans, retirement, credit cards and starting a business.
The company recently released a list that featured the most inexpensive places to start up a business. Wichita came in second behind Chattanooga, Tennessee.
SmartAsset looks at the cost of running a business, which hypothetically has five employees and a 1,000-square-foot office. The report states that Wichita has cheap office space, utilities, and legal and accounting fees.
AJ Smith, vice president of Content at SmartAsset, says after getting priced out of places like San Francisco and New York City, entrepreneurs are looking to move to smaller cities.
“It’s not just the businesses that want to be there so that their costs are lower, but people want to be there because then their housing costs are lower, their cost of utilities, their cost of raising kids—that all goes down,” Smith says.
Other important factors of having a successful startup culture include fast internet speeds and a pool of skilled workers
Smith says a support network is important for startup companies, and that she was encouraged to see organizations like 1 Million Cups and Startup Wichita helping out fellow business owners in the area.
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