BusinessWeek Names Sparks as the Best City for Starting a Business in Nevada

BusinessWeek magazine this week announced the City of Sparks as the best city for starting a business in Nevada. The national ranking comes as good news for city officials and economic development groups looking to promote Sparks and the Greater Reno-Tahoe region as a place for companies to invest and for startup companies to thrive during this economic downturn.

“I am not surprised that BusinessWeek has selected Sparks as the best place to start a business,” said Sparks Mayor Geno Martini. “We have worked hard over the years to create a business climate that is desirable for entrepreneurs to prosper because we realize that their success is our success. I am delighted with the news which will help many potential startup businesses take notice of Sparks.”

According to the analysis conducted by BusinessWeek using demographic and geographic data from ZoomProspector.com, BusinessWeek searched cities across the United States with populations ranging from 20,000 to 200,000 people to compile the list. The rankings were calculated based on 11 factors to measure a city’s entrepreneurial climate, including the number of small businesses and startups, the quality of workforce, how many universities are in the community, and measures of innovation such as the number of patents issued and the amount of venture capital invested.

Based on the data, Sparks showed 3.18 startups per 1,000 people and 35 small businesses per 1,000 people which helped catapult the city to the top in Nevada. “BusinessWeek is one of the most respected business publications and this recognition should highlight the economic development efforts in Sparks,” said Anatolio Ubalde, CEO and co-founder of ZoomPropsector.com.

The profile of demographic and business data for Sparks is available at http://www.zoomprospector.com/CommunityDetail.aspx?id=16945&f=1. 

Local economic development officials see the national media coverage as a key tool in building awareness of the region with other startup companies that may be looking to launch their business in Greater Reno-Tahoe. “We know from research that corporate business executives learn about possible places to locate their companies from news stories and BusinessWeek is a credible news source that executives look to for the latest in business and industry trends,” said Chuck Alvey, president and CEO for the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN). “The national ranking will certainly enhance our regional efforts to attract new business and jobs to the area.”

The head of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET), a group that promotes entrepreneurism in Nevada, touts the ranking as good for Nevada. “Small businesses, which represent 95 percent of Nevada’s businesses have known for a long time that Nevada is one of the nation’s best places to start a business,” said Dave Archer, CEO of NCET. “Having BusinessWeek choose to recognize Sparks as being one of our great places to live and a great place to start a business benefits our entire region and state.”