Who’s the Boss?
Here's why Californians should move to Dallas if they want to be boss
Have you ever wanted to be your own boss? If you're living in Big D, you already have a leg up on the competition. A new ranking puts Dallas at No. 5 among the best cities to be self-employed.
To produce the list, personal financial website SmartAsset looked at six economic factors for a city: percentage of self-employed workers, average earnings for self-employed workers, median housing costs, median housing costs as a percentage of self-employed earnings, local tax burden, and unemployment rate.
In Dallas’ favor is the fact that the average self-employed worker earns slightly less than $85,000 a year.
“Thanks to low costs of living in Dallas, that $85,000 goes pretty far. For example, to pay for the median Dallas home, the average self-employed person would only need to spend 13.5 percent of their income,” SmartAsset says.
Dallas is not the only Texas city to perform well in the SmartAsset ranking. Amarillo tops the list, followed by Lubbock at No. 2. Other Texas cities in the top 25 are Plano (No. 15), Laredo (No. 22), and Houston (No. 24).
In part, SmartAsset attributes Texas’ strong showing on the list to the lack of a state income tax.
Meanwhile, the SmartAsset ranking offers no love to California — which helps further explain why so many Californians are relocating to Texas.
“If your dream is to open up your own business and be your own boss, you may want to avoid California,” SmartAsset says. “This state is known for high taxes, high costs of living and high housing costs. Seven of the lowest-ranked cities for self-employed workers are in California.”
