New registrations in Central Oregon communities outpaced most of Oregon last month
The Oregon Secretary of State’s business data is in for February, and for the second month of 2017, new business registrations continued to affirm Bend’s status as an entrepreneur-friendly city. According to the new Bend Entrepreneur Report from Bend business law firm EagerLaw PC, the only city in Oregon that logged more new business registrations than Bend in February was Portland—and at more than seven times Bend’s population, Portland had less than five times as many new business registrations.
During February, 297 new business registrations were associated with Bend addresses, an 8.6 percent dip from January’s figure of 325 new business registrations in Bend. Statewide, February’s new business registrations were down 7.3 percent from January, which EagerLaw PC founder and business attorney Jeff Eager attributes partly to the shortened work month and partly to the traditional January push to start new businesses.
“We did see a bit of a falloff in February compared to January, which is to be expected after the energy of the New Year gives way to business as usual,” Eager stated. “What did surprise us a little was the fact that more new businesses were registered in Bend than in any of the cities with larger populations, except for Portland. We had more new business registrations than Salem and Eugene combined.”
In crunching the numbers, EagerLaw determined that 133 businesses were registered per 100,000 Oregonians in February. At 344 new business registrations per 100,000 people, Bend more than doubled that statewide yardstick. In fact, the Central Oregon region as a whole outpaced the state, with Bend, Redmond, Prineville, Madras, Sisters, La Pine, Sunriver and Terrebonne combined registering 337 businesses per 100,000 people last month—more than two and a half times the state average. Portland, by comparison, saw 225 new business registrations per 100,000 residents.
In Bend, construction-related business registrations remained strong, with at least 14 new business registrations in that industry. The city saw at least four new cannabis-related business registrations in February, compared to just two in the more mature beer industry. The upcoming spring season was reflected in a number of new business registrations, including at least 10 new cleaning business registrations, three related to yard care and another three associated with window cleaning, and at least five new business registrations in the exercise and nutrition industries.
The Bend Entrepreneur Report is a free service of EagerLaw PC. The firm analyzes the state’s raw data on business registrations each month and compiles information about the latest entrepreneurial activity statewide and in Bend, highlighting emerging trends and cycles. While EagerLaw staff work to include only new and unique business registrations registered within the City of Bend, there may be a small number of business registrations from places outside the City of Bend with Bend addresses (for instance, Deschutes River Woods, Tumalo, or parts of Sunriver) included in the report.
Founded by former Bend Mayor Jeff Eager, EagerLaw PC works to help Oregon entrepreneurs succeed in business. In addition to the increasingly popular flat-fee LLC Bend service, EagerLaw offers a full range of business law services, including buying and selling businesses and assets, real property, and employment law.
www.eagerlawpc.com
