OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) – Oklahoma City is the second-best city in the nation to open a small business, according to Forbes.
Forbes Advisor analyzed the 50 largest metropolitan cities across the United States to determine which ones are the best and worst to open a small business.
Small businesses are on the rise across the U.S., according to Forbes.
The site reports that a record high 5.5 million small business applications were filed in 2023 – the third consecutive year of historic small business growth. And of those business, a record high 1.8 are likely to hire employees.
“However, small business owners face significant risks that can impact their livelihoods every day, including increased inflation rates, high tax corporate costs, low gross domestic product (GDP) growth and safety precautions, such as losses due to theft and cybercrime attacks,” Forbes states.
Forbes determined the best and worst cities to open a business through 16 scoring metrics across three categories: financial risk, safety risk and workforce and customer risk.
Oklahoma City scored a second place ranking for least risky city for small businesses, coming in behind top-ranked Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
Forbes listed the following three reasons as to why they ranked Oklahoma City second best overall:
- This area ranked second lowest in our regional price parity metric, meaning the cost of supplies and equipment in this area should be cheaper than others.
- The Oklahoma City area ranked ninth lowest in our cybercrime metric, experiencing 34 per 10,000 residents, which is lower than our study average of 82.
- The state of Oklahoma suffered $1.39 billion in retail crime costs in 2021, significantly less than the study average of $4.2 billion.
The Oklahoma Legislature is taking a special interest in combating retail crime.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 3694 in March.
HB 3694, written by Rep. John George, R-Newalla, decreases the felony threshold for theft from $1,000 to $500.
Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, wrote Senate Bill 1450 to crack down on retail crime and crime syndicates by allowing the Attorney General’s Office to hire more agents to investigate organized retail crime so to improve response time and bring charges quicker.
The bill’s provisions mandate that individuals convicted of organized retail theft will be subject to a term of up to five-years in county jail. Individuals convicted could face up to eight years in prison.
“This legislation was born out of recommendations from the Organized Retail Crime Task Force that has been meeting since October,” Treat said. “While the committee continues to meet, this is one of the group’s first recommendations they collectively believe will make an immediate impact in cracking down on retail crime in our state. Senate Bill 1450 gives the Attorney General’s Office more investigative authority and incorporates stricter penalties for individuals who operate or are engaged in organized crime. We must do everything we can to protect public safety, while vigorously prosecuting criminals who are engaged in these illegal activities.”
Capital One research shows that Oklahoma retailers lost $848 million in revenue to theft in 2022.
