Best Cities to Start a Business in Kansas

Kansas is traditionally known as one of the leading states in agricultural output; miles of corn and soybean lead out from highways and stretch into the horizon, but there are facets to its economy of interest to entrepreneurs.

Many large corporations base themselves in Kansa, including Garmin, Sprint, and Tyson foods. Additionally, Kansas is a hub for the aeronautical industry: Cessna, Spirit Airlines, Learjet, and more have manufacturing plants in the state. These large companies maintain thousands of jobs in Kansas for employees of all education levels and also present contracting opportunities for entrepreneurs.

In 2013, Governor Sam Brownback initiated what he called “the largest tax cut” in state history, slashing taxes across the board and creating corporate tax loopholes in hopes of drawing more big business into the state. While the effects of this sweeping tax cut are controversial, it has created a business ecosystem with a very low tax burden.

Significantly, through Brownback’s reforms, small business owners are now completely exempt from paying state income tax. Considering other states’ high state income tax rates, this can mean thousands of dollars a year that a business owner keeps in their pocket, providing a great incentive to start a business in Kansas.

Only cities with over 50,000 inhabitants are reported in the results. Some data had to be interpolated to the county level and extrapolated to all the cities in the county. We concentrated on the following metrics to obtain our ranking: Cost of living, Best state for business, Unemployment, Kauffman index, and Universities.