Australian accounting software company Reckon has ranked the 50 largest Australian cities according to which is the best to start a business, with Geelong in Victoria taking the top spot.
In its 2024 Reckon Startup Cities report, Geelong in Victoria outperforms every other city and has been crowned by the report as ‘Australia’s best city to start a business’. Geelong also holds the eighth-highest talent pool score and has fast internet speeds at par with the rest of the state.
“Launching a start-up in Australia, or anywhere, is no simple feat, but absolutely achievable. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and success is everywhere,” Sam Allert, Reckon CEO, said. “With regional cities like Geelong beating out capitals like Sydney, it creates an outline that while capitals are attractive, a higher cost of living in could create barriers to profits and growth.”
For the report, Reckon analysed the 50 largest cities in Australia across 18 data points. Each city was given a score on a scale from 0-100 to discover which Australian city is the best for starting a business based on factors such as location, how well businesses in a given location can attract talent, and how affordable it is for one to be able to live and work there.
“It’s interesting that you might find some the least obvious cities in Australia may offer the best environments for start-up prosperity,” Allert commented. What I’m seeing by looking at factors like talent, infrastructure and living costs, is a diversification of opportunity across Australia’s cities. It may be time to ask yourself as an aspiring entrepreneur – should you be looking to broaden your geographical horizons?”
On the other hand, Nowra in New South Wales holds the title as the worst city to start a business. Although Nowra doesn’t hold the lowest score overall for any of the criteria set by Reckon, all its scores are low in comparison to the majority of the other cities in the study. Nowra’s talent pool score is extremely low, which Reckon attributes to the statistic that only 14.1 per cent of the city’s population holds a bachelor’s degree or above qualification and only 52.6 per cent of the population is in the labour force.
“Starting a business anywhere in Australia is a serious undertaking, but certainly an achievable one in such a prosperous country with excellent infrastructure. It’s when a confluence of negative factors overlap that you find a taller barrier to entry. What start-ups need to look for is a perfect storm of positive business conditions to give them a running start. Start-ups can be fragile and it’s best not to make that hill steeper than it needs to be to get off the ground. Choosing the wrong location could create unnecessary friction,” Allert concluded.
