Home Business Information

We've done it again. We undertook the arduous task of selecting the 10 best cities in the united States for running a home-based business. We searched for cities surrounded by strong economic communities and densely populated areas within striking distance of business opportunities. We rated cities highly that offer relatively affordable housing, good-quality public schools, an educated or skilled work force, leading colleges and universities, and easy access to a major city (if it's not one itself).

And then we came up with 1994's best cities list, a combination old and new. Five cities from last year make their second appearance, and five new cities scored their way onto the list. Although the rankings for last year's honorees has shifted, one thing remained the same: Gaithersburg, Maryland, still holds forth as number one.

The major trend revealed in this year's report is that home-based businesses are gaining clout in their communities through such organized efforts as associations. They have been successful at getting pesky zoning regulations changed, forming alliances with elected officials, and garnering support from the private sector. The home-based business community isn't operating underground; it's on the forefront of change and that's what makes these such model cities.

How We Picked the Places Our research started with The 1994 Development Report Card for the States. Published by the Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C., the annual, 200-page report grades five years of a state's economic health in three major areas: economic performance (the amount of benefit and opportunity the state's economy provides its people), business vitality (the strength of the state's business sector), and development capacity (the state's capacity for future growth and recovery from economic adversity).

Using the most timely resources available, our next step was to collect information from a variety of city, state, national, and private industry sources. A new source this year was Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wisconsin, management consulting firm specializing in tracking travel and living costs. Runzheimer provided us with cost-of-living ratings from its databases of 300 to 400 markets. We used relocation pattern information from Atlas, Ryder, and United Van Lines, which indicated the inbound and outbound activity for corporations, employees, and families. Then we looked at housing opportunity indexes from the National Association of Home Builders, crime reports from the FBI, job-growth forecasts from the Economic Outlook Center in Arizona, weather data from the National Climatic Data Center, and U.S. Census Bureau statistics on labor force characteristics, income, and population patterns.

After plowing through all the data, we proceeded to interview local business experts and home-based business owners to see what programs and incentives each area offers the entrepreneur. This process included a special series of follow-up interviews with people in last year's best cities.

We added a new criterion this year - access to the information superhighway. This category gauges the availability of special phone company and online services, such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), a carrier service offered by telephone companies that can combine voice, images, and data traffic on a single line at very fast transmission rates. The availability of these cost-effective services helps you run your business more efficiently, which could increase your profit margin.

Drawing together all these factors - as you can see in further detail in the accompanying box, "Scoring the Top Cities for Home Business" - led us to pick the following 10 places as the best for running a home-based business. Let's see what makes each city so special.

Gaithersburg, Maryland

City Population: 43,793 (+ 32,000 Montgomery Village) County: Montgomery County Population: 782,000 Nearest Major City: Washington, DC (approx. 20 miles) Median Housing Price: $182,500 Average Household Income: $61,860 Major Employers: Bechtel Power, IBM, Lakeforest Mall, Marriott, National Institute of Standards and Technologies Climate: Four distinct seasons, with an average annual snowfall of 23.5 inches. Average temperatures: winter, 29.9 degrees, spring, 52.9; summer, 78.8; fall, 55. Taxes: Income - 2 percent ($1,000 or less) to 5 percent (above $3,000); Montgomery County also assesses a 60 percent piggyback income tax. Real estate - average rate of $3.60 per $100 assessed valuation; assessment ratio is 46 percent. Sales - 5 percent.

Strengths: What started as a small settlement between two ancient Indian trails is now recognized as the high-technology center of Maryland. Incorporated into a town in 1878. Gaithersburg's economic base today includes service, retail, federal employment, finance, insurance, and real estate. The county's average unemployment rate was a mere 2.7 percent this year compared with Maryland's 5.8 percent, according to the state's Labor Department.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:54 AM