{"id":250821,"date":"2026-04-15T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:00:11","slug":"ranking-puts-south-texas-near-bottom-for-new-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/250821\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking puts South Texas near bottom for new businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting a business<\/a> can be tough, but if you live in a small town South Texas, it could be a whole lot tougher. According to a new ranking by personal finance site WalletHub, the Rio Grande Valley<\/a> is one of the most difficult places in the country to launch a business, particularly if you\u2019re trying to start one outside of a major metro.<\/p>\n

WalletHub analyzed more than 1,300 municipalities across the United States in order to determine its ranking of \u201cBest & Worst Small Cities to Start a Business<\/a>\u201d in 2026. And according to its analysis, cities in the Valley rank in the bottom half of the list.<\/p>\n

The highest-ranked Valley city was\u00a0Pharr, which is located in Hidalgo County and boasts one of the busiest international bridges along the southern Texas border. Pharr<\/a> was ranked 723 out of 1,334 cities. Mission<\/a> and Edinburg <\/a>were ranked fairly similarly, at 729 and 741, respectively. But Weslaco<\/a> and Harlingen were much lower at 929 and 968. In the ranchlands, Kingsville came in at 1,207 out of 1,334 cities.<\/p>\n

So just what makes deep South Texas such a tough market to try to launch a business in? WalletHub officials say smaller cities can give entrepreneurs several advantages, including lower startup costs and a more business-friendly atmosphere. But smaller towns may also have fewer resources available to aid small business owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits of starting a business in a small city include lower overhead costs, stronger relationships with customers and the potential to become a big fish in a little pond,\u201d\u00a0WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are drawbacks, too. Entrepreneurs who want to build a large professional network aren\u2019t likely to make as many connections in a town with fewer residents. Other restrictions might include limited industry options, a less diverse customer base, and difficulty attracting and keeping top talent,\u201d\u00a0Lupo\u00a0added.<\/p>\n

To rank all five Valley cities<\/a>,\u00a0WalletHub evaluated a mix of factors across three main categories:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Business environment \u2014 including average workweek length, commute times, startups per capita, industry diversity and business revenue growth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Access to resources \u2014 such as availability of financing, investors and workforce talent; higher education access and attainment rates; working-age population; and job growth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Business costs \u2014 including office space availability, labor costs, corporate taxes and overall cost of living.<\/p>\n

Across these metrics, all five Valley cities performed poorly in business environment and ranked around the middle in both access to resources and business costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting a business can be tough, but if you live in a small town South Texas, it could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[821,2320,820,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-250821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-mysabusiness","9":"tag-mysasotx","10":"tag-mysastaff","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}