Hot Cities

No Big Apple. No City of Angels. No Windy City. Much like in years past, our 1998 annual ranking of the best cities in the nation for small business takes us off the beaten path and onto roads less traveled. Not that there aren't cities you'll recognize on our list--neither Atlanta nor Orlando, Florida, are obscure destinations by any stretch--but we're always surprised by the results of the survey we conduct with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).

Then again, maybe we're not too surprised. Major metropolitan areas tend to be ultra-competitive as well as notoriously high in business failures. According to Steve Hess, D&B's director of analytical services, setting up shop in commercial behemoths like Los Angeles also runs on the costly side. "Certainly, there are a lot of customers in markets like these," says Hess, "but they are very expensive places to [do business]."