The New Year brings about a time of change, sparking many to take the opportunity for a new beginning in both their personal and professional lives.
For entrepreneurs looking to pave their own path January is the most common month, with British entrepreneurs up to 10 per cent more likely to start a business in January than any other month.
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However, with a new business, there are many important decisions that need to be made early on, a primary one being where the business should be based.
MoneySuperMarket analysed and ranked 18 cities across the UK to determine where in the country best caters for new businesses. There were a number of key factors included in this ranking such as the cost per workstation, business insurance and the number of office spaces available to see which cities are deemed the most desirable places to set up shop.
Prime Opportunities
The research found Edinburgh to be the best city to set up a new business, due to its excellent cost per workstation, strong local broadband speed and low number of business insurance claims. Brighton and Hove, on the other hand ranked last, due to the limited and costly desk space.
Scotland was also found to be the best overall location to set up a new business:
- Edinburgh – Surpassing the UK’s capital in terms of number of co-working spaces available with an average 11 available per thousand people. Edinburgh also fared excellently on average cost per desk (£300), local broadband speed (34 mbps), and low business insurance claims noted. Edinburgh also provided many of the incentives that London can to new businesses, including angel investments and start-up loan schemes, against a much lower cost of living than London.
- Glasgow – Glasgow saw an even lower cost per workspace than Edinburgh, with the average desk space costing £256. It also saw a comparable WiFi speed of 30mbps, much higher than the average recorded for most UK cities. The only place in which Glasgow lost out to other cities was on the amount of workspaces available, which gave English cities such as Liverpool & Manchester a slightly higher overall score.
Aberdeen also made the top 10, coming in at 7th place, making Scotland the only country of the UK to have all of its major cities in the top 10.
