Owning the recognition

Dallas deemed No. 4 county in U.S. for small businesses, says study

Dallas is a great place to start a small business.

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Small businesses are often called the backbone of the U.S. economy. Well, if that’s the case, then Dallas County might be the spinal cord of small business in Texas.

Personal finance website Smart Asset ranks Dallas County the best place in Texas for small business owners. Nationally, Dallas County lands at No. 4.

To come up with its list, the website examined federal data to zero in on three factors: the number of small businesses operating in each county, how much income they generate, and what they pay in taxes.

Smart Asset then weighed each set of data to develop an index score, with 100 being the top number. Dallas County earned a score of 94.26 on the 100-point scale. It didn’t appear in Smart Asset’s Texas or national top 10 last year.

The Smart Asset study mostly aligns with other recent rankings for North Texas. For instance:

In March, personal financial website ValuePenguin picked Dallas-Fort Worth as the country’s sixth best place for small businesses.
A LendingTree study released in October put DFW at No. 19 among the best places in the U.S. to start a small business.
Fort Worth ranked ninth and Dallas ranked 14th on an April list from personal finance website WalletHub of the best places in the country to start a business.

According to Dallas Economic Development, nearly 80 percent of businesses in Dallas are small businesses, and they employ almost 40 percent of the city’s workers.

“Small businesses account for a significant number of jobs and play a key role in growing tax revenue. Small business is fundamental to workforce development, especially in minority, immigrant, and under-educated … communities,” the economic development agency says.

Courtesy of Smart Asset, here’s the rest of this year’s top 10 counties in Texas for small business owners:

Galveston County (Houston metro area), No. 2 in the state and No. 5 nationally.
Haskell County (north of Abilene), No. 3 in the state and No. 6 nationally.
Titus County (east of Sulphur Springs), No. 4 in the state and No. 8 nationally.
Matagorda County (east of Victoria), No. 5 in the state and No. 9 nationally.
Goliad County (west of Victoria), No. 6 in the state (not in national top 10).
Glasscock County (east of Midland), No. 7 in the state (not in national top 10).
Stonewall County (northwest of Abilene), No. 8 in the state (not in national top 10).
Brooks County (north of McAllen), No. 9 in the state (not in national top 10).
Midland County (Midland metro area), No. 10 in the state (not in national top 10).

lists rankings

innovation hub

Plano is the 7th best U.S. city to find a job in 2026, report finds

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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Dallas neighbor Plano has worked its way into 7th place in WalletHub's new study ranking the best places to find a job in 2026.

The just-released "Best Cities for Jobs (2026)" report compared 182 U.S. cities based on 31 relevant metrics "that shape the strength of local job markets" across two main categories: a socioeconomics rank and a job market rank.

WalletHub determined the top three best U.S. cities to find a job in 2026 are Scottsdale, Arizona (No. 1); Columbia, Maryland (No. 2); and Portland, Maine (No. 3).

The report found Plano's job market ranking — which covered job opportunities, employment growth, unemployment rates, job automation risk, and more — is the 6th best in the U.S.

Plano also ranked No. 40 in the nationwide socioeconomic category, which analyzed housing affordability, median annual income, average work and commute times, transit accessibility, and many other factors.

While these employment indicators are important to consider when researching the best place to find work, WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said the quality of the jobs available matters just as much as the quantity of available jobs in a city.

"There are plenty of secondary factors to take into account as well, from how easy a city makes commuting to jobs to whether it’s a good place for raising a family or engaging in recreational activities outside of work," Lupo said.

Plano is home to the headquarters and regional offices for major corporations including Toyota, J.C. Penney, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, Bank of America, Capital One, Ericsson, and soon, AT&T.

Plano was dubbed the No. 6 best city for remote workers in 2025, and the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro recently ranked No. 3 a separate national ranking of the best cities for startups.

Elsewhere in Texas, 10 more cities made it into the top-100 best places for finding a job: Austin (No. 9), Irving (No. 18), Grand Prairie (No. 24), Amarillo (No. 32), Garland (No. 48), Dallas (No. 54), Arlington (No. 60), Fort Worth (No.77), San Antonio (No. 78), and Corpus Christi (No. 100).

The top 10 best U.S. cities for finding a job in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 2 – Columbia, Maryland
No. 3 – Portland, Maine
No. 4 – South Burlington, Vermont
No. 5 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
No. 6 – Orlando, Florida
No. 7 – Plano, Texas
No. 8 – Washington, D.C.
No. 9 – Austin, Texas
No. 10 – Huntsville, Alabama

job market innovation wallethub ranking employment plano