With May 3 kicking off National Small Business Week, the personal-finance company WalletHub released its report on 2026’s Best Large Cities to Start a Business, as well as expert commentary, in order to help entrepreneurs find the right places for their startups to thrive. WalletHub compared 100 U.S. cities across 19 key indicators of startup viability. The data set ranges from the five-year business-survival rate to labor costs to office-space affordability.

Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst said, “Starting a business can be very scary, considering one in every five startups doesn’t make it past the first year. That’s why it’s especially important to live in a city that provides an environment where new businesses can thrive, with enough capital, workers and customers to keep it going long-term.”

Starting a Business in Tulsa (1=Best; 50=Avg.):

• Overall Rank: 8^th
• 1^st – Financing Accessibility
• 10^th – Office-Space Affordability 
• 17^th – Labor Costs
• 2^nd – Cost of Living
• 39^th – Length of Average Workweek (in Hours)
• 54^th – Industry Variety

For the full report, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-to-start-a-business/2281

Those considering a new business should consider:

“The most critical tip for an aspiring entrepreneur is to validate the market before investing significant capital. Success is less about the brilliance of an idea and more about the precision of the solution. According to 2026 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 21.5 percent of private sector businesses fail within their first year. Aspiring founders must focus on building a minimum viable product to test assumptions early.

“A primary mistake entrepreneurs make is miscalculating market demand. Research from CB Insights indicates that 42 percent of startups fail because there is no actual market need for the services they developed. Another frequent error is poor cash management, which accounts for 29 percent of failures. Many founders also fail to recruit the right team, with 23 percent of businesses collapsing due to internal friction or skill gaps. Overextending resources before achieving product market fit is a common path to premature closure.”

Andrew Burnstine, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Lynn University

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