Starting your own business is quite a monumental feat. Even with the cutbacks brought on by COVID behind us, many business owners in New York State still have an uphill climb. It's not cheap to live or operate a business here. And with even more challenges brought on by large inflation and supply chain shortages, it doesn't appear to be getting any easier.

But how good or bad is it starting a new business in Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Middletown or parts of New York?

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According to Lending Tree, 21.1% of new businesses in the state of New York fail within the first year. After 5 years, that number jumps to 52.8%.

The Results

WalletHub has compared the markets in 1,300 smaller towns (cities with populations between 25,000 to 100,000) across the country and offered some interesting data. The study weighed the data across three key dimensions: 1) business environment, 2) access to resources and 3) business costs.

See Also: Proposal Would Push New York State Minimum Wage to Over $20 An Hour

According to WalletHub, it's not quite as hard to launch a business around here as you may think, but it depends on what part of the state you're living in. According to the study, Poughkeepsie once again ranked the highest among the state's smaller towns at 360th place overall in the country.

Source: WalletHub

This is, though, a bit of a drop, as Poughkeepsie ranked 322nd in the same study last year.

360. Poughkeepsie
415. Albany
438. Newburgh
570. Central Islip
585. Troy
586. Ithaca
588. Saratoga Springs
623. Schenectady

Overall, the town of Washington, Utah ranked number 1 for best small towns to start a business, while Cupertino, California was last at 1334th place.

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