Columbus is the best city in Ohio to start a business, according to a new ranking, but that doesn't amount to much nationally.
The city ranked No. 1 in Ohio in WalletHub's Best Large Cities to Start a Business, but only No. 88 in the country, according to the financial website's number-crunching.
WalletHub looked at 18 factors in three categories and Columbus got its worst score for business environment, which looked at things such as startups per capita, the growth in small businesses, the five-year business survival rate and the variety of industries here. The city ranked No. 108 in that metric.
While not apples to apples, that's far worse than what the Kauffman Foundation found last fall in its "Main Street" index, which measures the proportion of the population owning businesses, the density of small businesses older than five years and survival rate of small businesses reaching that age. The Columbus area ranked 16th among 40 large cities.
In the WalletHub ranking, Columbus was No. 40 nationally for access to resources and No. 75 for business costs.
Cincinnati came in at No. 105 nationally and Cleveland was No. 134, despite having the country's second-lowest labor costs.
Toledo had the 140th best overall climate for starting a business but it stood out for one thing – it has the cheapest office rates in the country.