According to a study published by “Wallet Hub,” a personal finance website, Lubbock ranks fifteenth in the country as one of the best cities to start your business.
To create the list, Wallet Hub analyzed metrics ranging from five-year business survival rates, as well as rent and office-space affordability.
“It absolutely makes sense to us, it’s not a surprise. Lubbock is a great entrepreneurial city,” said Beth Bridges, Chairwoman of Lubbock Chamber of Commerce. “I think Lubbock is very easy to do business in. First of all, because of the affordability, both retail and office affordability, it’s very reasonable to start your own business as well. But then also simply transportation cots and the price of gas per gallon is substantially less than the west or east coast, so it’s affordable and easy to start your business here.”
Lubbock’s affordability is what has helped reeled in businesses like Albarran’s, a new Mexican bar and grill located off of Milwaukee. The owner , Jorge Albarran, also owns “Jorge’s Mexican Bar & Grill” in Amarillo. He says that he would have customers come in from Lubbock ask him to open a location in the Hub City.
Albarran said the decision to build was not a difficult one to make.
“They said ‘we need one of those in Lubbock,'” said Albarran. “I’ve always liked this spot for a long time. I bought this property two years ago, but we cannot make this work without them so thank you so much to the Lubbock people.”
In addition to bringing in new restaurants, Lubbock has also been able to keep some long-standing businesses stay in the South Plains, such as Bahama Buck’s.
“We started in Lubbock 26 years ago and we were in college at Texas Tech so we were very fortunate starting in Lubbock because the city worked with us even though we were younger they allowed us to go in and put in our business and didn’t look down upon us they worked with us,” said Eric Lee, the CFO of Bahama Buck’s, in regard to the company’s humble beginnings.
Bahama Buck’s is headquartered in Lubbock. It currently has 85 stores open across the southern United States, with 166 still coming. It’s newest location is set to open soon in Corpus Christi.
“Lubbock has always been a very stable environment and we’ve opened up stores in different stores in different states and we’ve come to appreciate that a stable economic environment allows you to grow with projection and to understand there’s not going to be the peaks and valleys as other markets that are out there,” said Lee.
“I think the growth in Lubbock is coming from a lot of different sources,” said Bridges. “The duration systems that we have here, the agriculture systems that we have here, with the medical industry, that really lends to a lot of growth in the area and we have a lot of people who move into the area.”
For a complete list of the ranking cities, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-to-start-a-business/2281/
