Ranking for Salt Lake is disputed

Salt Lake City ranked 95th among the 100 largest American cities in small-business growth the past few years, according to a new survey released Thursday.

Local small-business advocates dispute the numbers, however, and maintain that Utah is fertile ground for entrepreneurs.

"The State of Small Business" report was released, without analysis, by Sales Genie, a business and consumer database developed by Nebraska-based infoUSA. The database used by Sales Genie to compile its results includes information from about 14 million U.S. businesses and 200 million consumers. The survey measured the growth in the number of small businesses during the six years through 2003.

Of the top 100 metropolitan statistical areas included in the Sales Genie survey, Salt Lake ranked 95th, behind cities like Tacoma, Wash., and Allentown, Pa., but ahead of Honolulu and Providence, R.I.

From 1998 until 2003, Salt Lake increased from 50,201 small businesses — those with 1 to 500 employees — to 54,501 businesses, according to Sales Genie. Salt Lake's 8.6 percent growth rate paled in comparison to top-ranked Las Vegas' 59 percent growth rate during that same period, from 46,170 small businesses in 1998 to 73,163 in 2003.

Buffalo, N.Y., finished 100th, reporting 0.5 percent growth during the survey period. The average growth rate of the statistical areas ranked in the Sales Genie report was 18.6 percent.

Stan Nakano, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Utah district director, said while the Sales Genie survey results were interesting, they did not correspond with the administration's data.

"I find it interesting that this group would rank us so low," Nakano said. "All I can offer is based on our data and information. We did a record number of loans this year to small businesses, a 55 percent increase in loan volume. We did a record number of loans to women business owners, a record number of loans to minority business owners. We did a record number in terms of counseling and training for clients who wanted to start or grow their business. We did a large volume of federal contracting dollars to small businesses.

"For our market size, we're far exceeding the market size we actually have for small businesses, in terms of our loan numbers, counseling and training numbers and federal contracting numbers," Nakano said. "So it (Sales Genie's data) is a bit contrary to the information I have available for what we're doing here."