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Personal Finance Reports

The Best 100 Towns in Georgia for Starting a Small Business

Published Oct 04, 2017
4-min read
Mike Brown Author Photo
Written by Mike Brown
Mike Brown Author Photo
Written by Mike Brown

Expertise:

Mike Brown uses data from surveys and publicly-available resources to identify emerging personal finance trends and tell unique stories. Mike’s work, featured in outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, provides consumers with a personal finance measuring stick to make informed financial decisions.

Learn more about Mike Brown

Some of the biggest businesses in the entire world are headquartered in the state of Georgia: Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, Delta Air Lines, and Aflac are just a few.

​Why is this? Some point to the taxation policy in the Peach State. Many years, Georgians pay a lesser percentage of their income on state and local taxes when compared to the U.S. national average. When it comes to tax burden, Georgia typically ranks on the more favorable side of the spectrum.  

The sales tax in Georgia is 4 percent, half of what the sales tax is in most other states. Further, Georgia has no sales tax on products including prescription drugs, certain medical devices, and food items intended for home consumption.

Evidently, Georgia’s tax conditions have created a lucrative environment for many of the biggest businesses on Earth.

But, mega-companies are not the only ones benefitting.

Georgia has become fertile ground for opportunistic small businesses owners across the state. The same environment that has aided big businesses in Georgia has also greatly assisted small businesses in the Peach State.

​But, which specific communities in Georgia have become the very best for starting a small business? Which cities give business owners the chance to pursue a venture while minimizing the need to use small business loans? Using licensed data, LendEDU gave our best crack at that question and came up with a list of the 100 best towns and cities in Georgia for operating a small business.

Nearly 600 Georgia communities were analyzed according to the following three parameters:

  1. ​Population Score (20%, listed in table as Pop.)
  2. Income Score (40%, listed in table as Income)
  3. Expenses Score (40%, listed in table as Expenses)

Every parameter included a few sub-metrics that were used to calculate the total score for each parameter. Next, every Georgia town and city’s three parameter scores were summed together to get the final score. This process is explained in more detail in the methodology at the bottom of this page.

​The 100 Georgia communities that you will find below have been recognized by LendEDU as the best towns and cities in the entire state for starting a small business.

Complete Rankings & Interactive Map of the Best 100 Towns in Georgia for Small Businesses

Methodology 

All of the data that was used in this report was licensed by LendEDU from Onboard Informatics. Onboard Informatics’ dataset features many stand alone statistics that were used for this report, including the most recent population figures, tax data, and income projection figures. All together, nearly 600 Georgia communities were analyzed for this study. A population cutoff was set at 5,000, meaning any town or city with a population below that number was eliminated from analysis. 

The following three parameters and their respective sub-metrics were used to evaluate each and every Georgia town and city based on their conduciveness towards small businesses.​

1. Population Score (Weight – 20%, Maximum Point Total – 20 points)

  • Daytime Population Score – The difference in the normal population and the population that is present during standard working day hours (Weight – 10%, Maximum Point Total – 10 points)
  • Population Growth Score – Forecasted population growth over the next five years (Weight – 10%, Maximum Point Total – 10 points)

2. Income Score (Weight – 40%, Maximum Point Total – 40 points)

  • Disposable Income Score – The average disposable income available to residents (Weight – 20%, Maximum Point Total – 20 points)
  • Income Growth Score – Forecasted income growth over the next five years (Weight – 20%, Maximum Point Total – 20 points)

3. Expenses Score (Weight – 40%, Maximum Point Total – 40 points)

  • Property Tax Score – Property tax rates (Weight – 8%, Maximum Point Total – 8 points)
  • Sales Tax Score – Sales tax rate (Weight – 8%, Maximum Point Total – 8 points)
  • Utilities Score – Average cost of utilities (Weight – 8%, Maximum Point Total – 8 points)
  • Burglary Score – Rate of burglaries compared to the national average (Weight- 8%, Maximum Point Total – 8 points)
  • Property Crime Score – Rate of property crimes compared to the national average (Weight – 8%, Maximum Point Total – 8 points)

Each community’s respective sub-metric score for a specific category was ranked against all of the other respective town’s sub-metric scores in the same sub-category on a percent scale from 0 to 100. This process was completed for each sub-metric. Afterwords, each individual percent rank was multiplied by its weight to produce the point total. All of a given community’s sub-metric scores in a specific parameter were summed together to get the total parameter score. All three parameter scores were later summed together to get the final score. A town or city in Georgia that had a higher final score was ranked higher on the list and vice-versa. 

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