Then again, the types of businesses you find in small towns often don't have to worry about how close the airport is, or having a fiber connection. By the time they're successful enough to have these requirements, they've likely already figured out answers to these problems.
That's also really self selecting. If your company depends on having any of those things you can't really open up in a city without those things to start with. Even if you do try competitors probably are opening in cities with those services and the combined advantages.
True, but that's true with anything. You don't hear people talking about how hard it is to open an Atlantic salmon farm in Ames, Iowa. You don't hear people talking about how hard it is to farm avocados in Nome, Alaska. If your business depends on fiber Internet service and close proximity to an airport, you're going to select your business with that in mind. I'd wager most businesses don't have those requirements, though.
I can name a multinational I've worked with in the past, East Jordan Iron Works. They're headquartered three hours away from the nearest major airport in a town of 2,000 people. The nearest airport where the smallest Delta or American flight will land is over an hour away in a city of just 15,000 people. That didn't matter when they started, and it certainly didn't stop them from expanding their business operations to Ireland or France in recent years.
> That didn't matter when they started, and it certainly didn't stop them from expanding their business operations to Ireland or France in recent years.
Actually, you're not quite correct on this.
EJ opened where it did specifically because it was close to what they were servicing--the logging industry.
The fact that they could continue operating without moving is probably more of a testament to inertia than value.
Fair points. I'd add that EJIW has a lot of infrastructure and can still get iron ore from the Upper Penninsula of Michigan on freighters that fit through the draw bridge in Charlevoix and then ship out to the Atlantic if necessary. So it kind of makes sense to stay there. Plus the summers in that area are absolutely incredible.
