Up-and-Coming Start-Up Cities to Watch
Starting a new business is never easy. You need to have a unique edge to your business plan, and that’s not even the hardest part. Everyone that’s ever tried starting a business will tell you that the most important thing is also the most important thing in real estate: location, location, location.
If you want to start a new business, it’s probably best to look either for cities that already have a rich history attached to them, or cities that are expanding fast and growing rapidly. The latter allows your business to expand along with the city itself. Let’s take a look at a few of these cities where you’d probably want to put your business.
Dallas, Texas
Dallas has been in a state of rapid growth for several years now and is showing no signs of slowing down. It has a strong economy, and it’s already the ninth-largest city in the US, making it a very good candidate for business. Not to mention the Dallas area has dozens of universities in it, making it the perfect spot to attract young and highly educated workers that will help your business expand.
Bratislava, Slovakia
If we’re taking into account that the average EU country has a growth of about 1.5% and Slovakia managed to get 4.6% in late 2018, you can instantly tell that this country is booming. Most of that economic growth is being generated by small and medium-sized enterprises, meaning there’s definitely a market for new companies there. The government even actively supports start-ups, leading to Bratislava being one of the hottest start-up hubs in Europe.
Mumbai, India
When speaking of India, people often think of Delhi first. Mumbai isn’t too far behind, however, with the coastal city rapidly becoming the new industrial hot spot for the country. While the city first gained a lot of grandeur for being the Bollywood capital, it’s now taking on a more business-centered approach and definitely has plenty of space and market opportunities for start-ups of all shapes and sizes.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Scotland isn’t often associated with hip start-up businesses – mostly with kilts and whiskey. One shouldn’t underestimate Edinburgh’s significance from a historic, cultural and economic point of view, however. In the UK the city is only second to London, and because of the free education system, there’ll be no shortage of educated workers for whatever you should need. The weather isn’t going to be something you can sell most people on, though.
Turin, Italy
Home of legendary football club Juventus, Turin is one of the most often overlooked Italian cities when it comes to start-ups. Especially in the field of engineering, Turin is rapidly overtaking Milan and Rome and becoming one of the most important cities in Europe, even. And if that’s not enough to convince you, the Italian government has made the administration and taxes regarding starting your own business a lot more lenient, so pretty much everyone should be able to get started there.
Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg is probably the ideal hotspot when it comes to starting your own business. Not only does it have a highly educated workforce, but it also has the second-largest port in Europe and an airport. That means that whatever resources you require to do your business are always going to be readily available and easy to get delivered. It’s not the cheapest city in the world, though.
Antwerp, Belgium
Another historic city with a booming industry, Antwerp has similar strategic advantages as Hamburg. It’s close to Brussels, it has a large port, loads of colleges and universities that help you get an educated – often bi- or tri-lingual – workforce and it’s rich in culture. Because the population in Belgium is so low, most start-ups here will stick to a B2B approach and aim at more consulting-related tasks. Sadly, Belgium is infamous for its high-income taxes, which may put a lot of people off.
Riga, Latvia
Small countries often don’t sound like the best place to start a new business, but Latvia has managed to take this negative and turn it into a positive. Labor costs and taxes are so low that it’s effectively established itself as the perfect country to do a trial run of your product or service before you start hitting bigger markets.
Tallinn, Estonia
You may not think this of Estonia, but it is in fact one of the most digitally innovative countries in the world. If you’re trying to start a small tech business somewhere, this is probably going to be the best spot you can think of. They have free public Wi-Fi, do online voting and even allow people from abroad to become e-citizens. This truly is the place for tech talent to thrive.