Ione Talese, center, cuts the ribbon on her new Artisan Body Shop in downtown Ocean City in May 2014.
The latest superlative for Ocean City, NJ: A No. 5 ranking among the best places for women-owned businesses.
A consumer advocacy website,
NerdWallet.com, placed Ocean City near the top of its list in a recent ranking of 289 metro areas with 10,000 or more businesses.
NerdWallet's Shannon Colin confirmed that the report studied the U.S. Census Bureau's "Ocean City, NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area," which includes all of Cape May County.
The report cited these statistics for Cape May County:
- 27% of the businesses are women-owned.
- 25.4% of the women-owned businesses have paid employees.
- The average revenue of women-owned businesses is $145,486.07.
Santa Fe, N.M., and Boulder, Colo., topped the list, and Cape May County was ranked above places like Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
"There are an estimated 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States producing more than $1.4 trillion in revenues, according to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express OPEN," Sreekar Jasthi wrote in her feature.
"Businesses owned by women include Crazy Susan’s Cookies, a sweets shop featured on the 'Rachael Ray Show,’ and Yoga Ginger, a yoga studio in downtown Ocean City. More than 25% of women-owned businesses in Ocean City have paid employees, more than any place in our Top 20."
The report relied on U.S. Census surveys conducted in 1997, 2002 and 2007 and extrapolated forward to 2014 (the 2012 survey will not be published until later in 2015).
"Best of" and Top 10 lists are popular tools for publications to boost readership. The "
Best Places for Women-Owned Businesses" apparently is working for NerdWallet. The site crashed on Friday night.
