The 12 Best New England Cities to Start a Small Business

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

There’s good news and bad news if you’re looking to start a small business in New England.

The good news is that a New England city was among the top 200 in WalletHub’s list of best cities for starting small businesses. Portland, Maine got the nod, in a study that focused primarily on business environment, access to resources, and business costs.

The bad news is…Portland finished 190^th. And it was pretty steep drop after that. In fact, the next New England city on the list of over 1,000 is Bangor, Maine, at 296.

As always, when we're feeling a little down, we turn to a duo that started their small New England business in Vermont during the late '70s: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, known to most as Ben & Jerry.

“Do something you love, because you’re going to be doing a lot of it, and you’re going to be up to your ears in it,” said Cohen.

“There’s always people that doubt you, and there’s always going to be people who tell you that you can’t do it,” added Greenfield. “If everybody listened to that, there wouldn’t be anything new going on!”

At first, Ben & Jerry operated out of a former gas station in Burlington, Vermont – relying on word of mouth, the invention of flavors such as cookie dough, and creative undertakings such as constructing the world’s largest sundae to become household names.

Cohen thinks back to one sentence that stands out when anyone is at a crossroads: “Whether you think you can or you can’t…you’re right.”