Finger - lickin' GOOD

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2001 by Geoff Williams

Adds CEO Ford: "We've got the Reds, the Bengals, all the sports activities taking place in Cincinnati and Louisville." Not to mention the Wildcats, the University of Kentucky's wildly popular basketball team.

Lexington has many commodities--the green grass, the trees and the horses that gallop underneath the big, blue sky--but it hasn't overlooked its entrepreneurs.

Geoff Williams lives in Cincinnati, where be frequently writes for Entrepreneur. He has a vivid memory of his mother dragging him and his younger brother to a Lexington horse farm to watch Queen Elizabeth wave to an excited crowd as her limousine left the grounds. It was a three-hour round trip for a three-second glimpse.

SNAPSHOT: LEXINGTON

Population: about 300,000 (plus 150,000 in suburbs and counties)

Median age: 32

Estimated number of small businesses: 7,447 in 1998-51% of them employ fewer than 5 employees; 47% employ 5 to 99 employees.

Major employers: education, health care, service industries

Average single-family home price: $140,000

Cost of living index: 96.2, compared to a national average of 100

Helpful Web site: www.lexchamber.com, the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce Web site