Sacramento Makes The List For Cities That Are Startup Friendly
Publishing monthly since 1997, if there's one publication we can reference on what's what in the world of small business, it's Entrepreneur magazine, and for their August 2015 issue, Sacramento ranked in the top nine cities -- fourth to be exact-- that are hot for startups, specifically cities that aren't San Francisco or New York. All too often we hear stories about startup success stories somewhere in Silicon Valley or across the country in New York, but according to Entrepreneur, Sacramento boasts features that startups would love to take use to their advantage. Entrepreneur looked at unemployment rates, the percentage of college graduates the area had and the overall geographical and societal advantages that cities afforded for new businesses.
Although, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sacramento has seen an uptick in unemployment from 5.6 percent to 5.7 percent in their latest reporting for the month of June, overall employment is 1.3 percent lower than the same time last year and is lower than California's unemployment rate at 6.3 percent. Strong low unemployment numbers means more overall disposable income to be spent. Additionally, Entrepreneurs' findings on college graduate levels can be further backed up by the United States Census Bureau on reporting that 30 percent of Sacramento's population has attained their bachelor's degree compared to the national average of 28.8 percent. Thanks to plenty of available land to build on and competitive bid contracts, not only has California seen an uptick in construction bids over the past year, so has Sacramento with over 523 bids valued at over $2 billion on this second quarter alone.
Entrepreneur magazine was keen to point out the geographical advantages of being situated as the state's capital combined with the being home to the nation's number one Ag tech university and surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland. Although the drought has put a damper on some of our state's best crops, industries around California are willing to pay for technology to stay afloat and become more efficient with their resources from farm to table. And no better place is there for Ag tech to shine then Sacramento county.
Paulo Acoba is a California native raised in the Bay Area and living in the Central Valley. He enjoys distance running, cycling and grassroots motorsports. He holds a degree in management from the University of California Merced. Paulo has been writing for Examiner.com since 2012 and covering the Fresno area.
