Sarasota recently placed No. 44 in a ranking of the best American small cities in which to start a business published by Verizon. To create the list, the company examined the portion of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher, average commute times, income per capita, access to broadband internet and the availability of loans for small businesses. The top three cities in the list are Portland, Maine; Weston, Florida; and Missoula, Montana.