Vegas, baby! Care to let your entrepreneurial fortunes ride out in the Nevada desert

Entrepreneur, Dec, 2002 by Joshua Kurlantzick

* CALL THE BANKERS: Though lending has dried up a bit in Las Vegas over the past year, many banks and other lenders such as the SBA's Community Express program are still extending credit. However, Sharolyn Craft of the Nevada Small Business Development Center notes that loan criteria in Vegas have always been conservative, especially for recent arrivals, since so many fail and leave town. Entrepreneurs should visit Vegas and schedule appointments with lenders before deciding whether to move to Nevada.

HIDDEN GEMS

Here are some industries that are still under-served in Las Vegas:

* ELDER CARE: Vegas demographers predict the city's retiree population will more than double in the next decade, yet the Greater Las Vegas area still suffers from a shortage of elder care businesses that provide food delivery and other services to seniors.

* HEALTH CARE: In part because of the high price of malpractice insurance in Nevada, Las Vegas suffers from a severe shortage of doctors. Sharolyn Craft of the Nevada Small Business Development Center believes Nevada legislature will soon address the malpractice rates crisis and that enterprising physicians could easily open new offices in Vegas and quickly build a strong patient base.

* MARKETING: Public relations firms already operating in Vegas believe the city's PR market is far from saturated. Though the major casinos all have in-house public relations departments, few Vegas small businesses including the growing number of real estate developers and agents, employ full-time marketing staffs.

* SECURITY: Although Vegas is full of old-school security firms that provide the muscle needed to protect the casinos and staff fights and other events, the city still lacks local online security firms that could handle the casinos future moneymaker: Internet gambling.

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK is foreign editor of The New Republic.