EDITED BY KIMBERLY WEISUL

There's No Place Like...

Congratulations to Phoenix. The desert metropolis has been named the best large U.S. city for small businesses by demographics researcher Cognetics Inc.

But don't call the moving vans just yet. According to Dun & Bradstreet Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla. is tops. Research film BizMiner disagrees, ranking West Palm Beach a mediocre 28 out of 60 large metro areas. Cognetics also puts West Palm Beach down the list at 24--and says that it's not a big city at all, but rather a small one.

Apparently ''best'' is open to definition. What gives? Cognetics, working with Inc. magazine, looks at the percentage of local businesses that are young and fast growing. D&B, data provider to Entrepreneur, adds regional growth and bankruptcies. BizMiner tosses in sales growth. The result: A lot of towns get a chance for some chest-thumping.

So what's the ''best'' city for your own business? You'll have to crunch that data yourself.

I Want My SBTV

Is small-business programming ready for prime time? Maybe not. But small-biz guru Jane Applegate thinks there's an audience that's, well, timeless. Enter SBTV.com. Applegate's new Web site serves up small-business news, profiles, and advice. Soon she hopes to license segments back to the TV networks.

Sure, the technology for TV-on-the-Web is primitive, the site won't get daily updates till fall, and Applegate's looking for more funding. Still, it's all small biz, all the time.

Better Safe Than Cited

If you're worried by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's plans for ergonomic standards, consider setting up a formal safety program for your company. You can do it online with WorkSafe System, a Web-based software package from EHSManager.com LLC that covers every aspect of workplace safety. Answer about a dozen questions, and the software determines the risk you're running. Then it details the safety practices OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency require. Service runs from $30 to $200 monthly at EHSmanager.com or at 877 803-SAFE.

I'm, Uh, an Entrepreneur

To politicians, small business is right up there with mom and apple pie. So why is the National Governors' Assn. suggesting states give small biz the back of the hand while ''entrepreneurs'' get stroked?

Jobs. Growth. Entrepreneurs, says a recent NGA report, ''tend to bring new wealth.'' Small businesses, in contrast, ''usually capture a share of existing wealth.''

''We're not trying to draw a distinction that says small business isn't good,'' says Thom Rubel, co-author of the NGA's Nurturing Entrepreneurial Growth in State Economies. Still, he suggests that states ''re-target'' programs to aid entrepreneurs.

Small-business owners, take note. If anyone from the government asks, you're an entrepreneur.

Extra Exporters

The number of small and medium-size exporters jumped to 202,185 in 1997, from 108,026 in 1992, say new data from the General Accounting Office. Small companies are strongest in Old Economy industries like manufacturing and lumber, but accounted for only 17% of U.S. exports of electric and electronic equipment.

Fly Me--and Pay Me

You've probably heard about biztravel.com's rebate offer: Book a flight through its Web site and get $100 back if the plane is 30 minutes late.

Two suggestions, if you prefer cash to punctuality. First, fly American. It's not the worst in the industry, but the Transportation Dept.'s April data say American has the weakest on-time record of the five airlines biztravel chose to cover with its guarantee. If you really want that $100, fly through LaGuardia on US Airways Flight 647 (LaGuardia-West Palm Beach), Flight 464 (Norfolk, Va.-LaGuardia), or Flight 947 (LaGuardia-Norfolk). In April, these flights were late 80% of the time. (The airline blames weather and traffic control.) One way or another, it seems, time is money.

Frontier Online

Online and Unhappy
The more small businesses shop online, the less they like it. That's the conclusion of a new study by consulting firm Cyber Dialogue, which polled 1,000 owners of businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Online support is a particularly sore point with entrepreneurs. Only 48% of the small-business owners surveyed were satisfied with online customer support, down from 60% in 1999. Customer service informatioonline.

Techie Drought
Small businesses are less optimistic about their ability to recruit information technology staff than their big-business colleagues are, says the Information Technology Assn. In a survey of 700 hiring managers, those with 50 to 99 employees said they expected to see qualified applicants for 52% of their open information technology positions. Hiring managers who worked at companies with 1,000 or more employees expected to see qualified job seekers for 56% of their openings.

Small businesses also have more jobs to fill. The study found 1.6 million tech-related job openings, with 1.4 million of them at small companies.

For the full versions of these stories, click Online Extras at smallbiz.businessweek.com

One Iota

Blood is thicker than equity
Percentage of family businesses that offer stock to their employees: 3%

Data: Business Owner Resources