BizStratBlog2

How can we be both 1st and 93rd at the same time?

In an earlier post I remarked on how Rochester had been rated #1 in the country for quality of life by Expansion Management Magazine - they recommended that companies look at Rochester as a location to move to.  Another recent survey by BizJournals.com ranked Rochster as the 7th worst city in the nation for small businesses.  How can we be both!? The Bizjournals.com evaluated the potential for growth of a small business, rather than overall quality of life.

The special report entitled "Where the best markets are to grow small business" covers the growth potential using a 12 factor evaluation:

• Existing small businesses/100,000 residents
• The 2-year and 5-year change in concentration of small businesses/100,000 residents
• The 2-year and 5-year change in total number of small businesses
• The 2-year and 5-year change in total residents
• The 2-year and 5-year change in private-sector employees
• The 2-year and 5-year change in private-sector payroll
• Average pay per private-sector employee in 2006 dollars

They're looking for cities on the way up - cities that are growing in all these factors.  And Rochester is in fact either shrinking or staying flat in vertually every category over the 2 and 5 year trends.  BizJournals attributes this to our population remaining flat, and our shrinking major industry manufacturing companies (Kodak, Xerox, Delphi) not pumping new capital into Rochester to help it grow.

Read on to the post continuation for a more detailed comparison of our scores

Rochester rated number 1 in Quality of Life

According to Expansion Management magazine, a top magazine for executives looking to relocate their companies, Rochester, NY is number 1 in quality of life out of over 350 other cities in the "large metropolitan region" category.  Cities were evaluated on 50 different criteria.  See this link for the article, which shows how they evaluated cities.  You can check out how we ranked in the top ten at this link.

As a company you want to look for places to locate that allow you save money on salaries, while still allowing your workers to have the quality of life they need and deserve.  Rochester gives you that - in spades!

Basically EM magazine is looking for places where the average worker can have a comfortable home, in a safe neighborhood, with excellent schools, for a reasonable proportion of your salary.  The importance is not so much what salary you'll be getting, but what that salary will buy in terms of a lifestyle.  Overall in Rochester you get the best combination of quality of life at a low price, and reasonably good salaries to afford that quality of life.

Criteria included affordable housing, good public schools, low crime levels, adult education level, standard of living, traffic and commuting, continuing education opportunity, commercial air access, and the general labor market.  The quality of life ranking was for middle class lifestyle.  Here's how we faired in each category:

Affordable housing - #4 behind Oklahoma city, Buffalo, Louisville

Public Schools - #6 behind Washington DC, Austin, TX, Phoenix, Baltimore and Richmond

Low Crime - #6 behind Boston, San Jose, Providence, Pittburgh and New York City

Adult education level - we did not rate in the top ten for large metros, or overall

Standard of Living - Rochester did not rate in the top ten for large metros or overall

Commute to work - Rochester was #2 behind Buffalo

Continuing Education opportunities - Rochester did not rank in the top ten

Commercial air access - Rochester did not rank in the top 10

Labor market - Rochester did not rank in the top 10

Our overall ranking put is in the "5 star Metropolitan Service Area" category

- Lee Drake
CEO OS-Cubed, Inc.

Join the dialog about how to improve our rankings in some of the categories we did not rank well in by checking out the Eyes on the Future site at www.eyesonthefuture.biz.

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