The Myth of New York, New York Businesses

My Dad loved Frank Sinatra. 

Let me restate that:  My Dad loved Frank Sinatra’s singing and the words to his songs.  I was thinking about this while I was driving through Kansas recently (which if you’ve ever been on Interstate 70, gives you a lot of time to daydream), when Sinatra’s song, “New York, New York” came on the radio, just outside of Goodland, Kansas (far western edge, and the home of the Van Gogh Big Easel project, if you’ve never been there).  I listened to Sinatra sing these lines during the song:

These little town blues
Are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York, New York.

Driving through Kansas, all of a sudden, I realized: “This song’s baloney!  Sinatra should have been singing about Kansas, because if you can make it in Kansas, you can make it anywhere.” 

When I got back to my office, a little research confirmed my gut feel:

 
There are 2,688,418 residents in Kansas, which computes to 32.86 residents per square mile (obviously not counting tourists and passer-throughs, like me).

But in New York City, there are over 8 million people, in roughly a 309 square mile area. That means that the population density of residents in New York City equals 25,889 people per square mile. 

Do the math, folks, and old New York, New York is 787 times more densely populated with people per square mile than the state of Kansas!  If I’m opening up a business, my odds of success are disproportionately greater in New York City than in Kansas, given that I have so many more potential customers immediately outside my door, with much more disposable income.  Sure, there’s more competition there, but I bet it’s not 7,870% more competitive.

Here’s my point on Community Reinvention:  It’s my experience that in densely populated areas, an owner can run a business that marginally meets the needs of their customers and they can still make ends meet.  But try that in Kansas, when you have less than 33 people per square mile!  You have to create an exceptional Destination Business to really stand out, in order for that business to be viable and for that owner to really make some money.

It is also my belief that the most innovative business reinvention that is happening in the country right now is NOT occurring in the big cities with major corporations (see GM).  It’s occurring in the small towns and cities across America with small businesses.   

The defense rests.

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