What businesses are most in demand in Needham?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis, the most in-demand business types in Needham are Indonesian Restaurants, Pet Boarding Facilities, and Singaporean Restaurants.

What are the best businesses to open in Needham?

The top businesses to open in Needham include Indonesian Restaurant with a ~87% chance on average of surviving more than 2 years, best-case locations reaching ~89%, followed by Pet Boarding Facility and Singaporean Restaurant.

How much money could a business in Needham make?

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting one of the best locations in Needham could lead to making ~2% more than selecting an average location, and ~4% more than one of the worst locations.

Business Survivability in Needham, Boston

Q: How does income in Needham compare to the rest of Boston?

Needham's median household income (~$175K) is above the Boston metro median (~$135K) by approximately $40K. Higher median income supports premium retail, upscale dining, and discretionary services.

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Needham is an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~87% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.

April 24, 2026•18 min read

Quick Summary

Best business: an Indonesian Restaurant in Needham (~87% average survival rate, ~89% at best locations)

Neighborhood rank: #35 across all neighborhoods in and around Boston

Neighborhood average: ~77% two-year survival across all business types

Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data

Detailed methodology

Reviewed and updated: May 11, 2026 — Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring

In this article:

Summary
Is Needham a good place to start a business?
How to find the best location
Best businesses to open
How much money could a business make?
What businesses should open next?
Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Needham is an Indonesian Restaurant with a ~87% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a ~89% chance; next is a Pet Boarding Facility with a ~87% chance, followed by a Singaporean Restaurant with a ~86% chance.

Is Needham a good place to start a business?

**Pattern match:** Needham's neighborhood signature — captured across demographic, employment, and amenity features — most closely matches **Olympic Manor (Seattle)** and **Park Promenade (Phoenix)**. The three share higher-income, more homeowners, and high high-earner share, which helps explain why business types that succeed in those areas tend to translate to Needham.

**The pattern in Needham.** Of 93 tracked subtypes, Indonesian Restaurant leads at **87% average survivability** — yet within the neighborhood, sites for this subtype range **65-99%** (34-point spread). That spread is the real failure surface: pick the wrong block in Needham and a top-subtype play still scores in the bottom quartile. Meanwhile Coffee Shops are already saturated here — 3 competitors within a 0.5-mile radius.

Among all neighborhoods in and around Boston, Needham ranks #35 for business survivability, with an average score of ~77%.

At the strongest addresses in Needham, the most viable business types score ~2% higher than the average survivability rate across all locations.
Still, those same business types at weaker addresses in Needham can score well below the neighborhood mean. Even the most viable concept here requires the right address to reach its potential.
Needham's employment rate of 95.6% and commercial vacancy of 2.9% are two of the inputs StreetSpring's model uses to differentiate survivability within this neighborhood.

Employment and vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.

How can you find the best location to open a business in Needham?

The right address in Needham can mean a 20-point survivability difference from an average one — StreetSpring identifies exactly which addresses are worth pursuing. Of all available storefronts analyzed in Needham, StreetSpring ranks this area highest for an Indonesian Restaurant in 2026:

Why the right block matters more than the right neighborhood

Loading live map preview...

The 2026 model from StreetSpring places the strongest storefronts inside this circle for an Indonesian Restaurant in Needham. Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes 100 factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, mobility patterns, and many more.

Check if this location is still available →

Which business types have the highest survivability in Needham?

#1-5: Highest Survivability in Needham

Indonesian Restaurant — ~85%–~89% survivability range, with an average of ~87% across Needham.
Opening a Pet Boarding Facility in Needham shows ~87% average survivability. Top locations reach ~89%; lower-end sites show ~85%.
Singaporean Restaurant (Ranked #3): ~86% average in Needham. Best-case storefronts: ~89%. Challenging locations: ~85%.
Deli is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Needham: ~86% chance on average, best at ~87%, challenging at ~84%.
Ukrainian Restaurant — ~84%–~88% survivability range, with an average of ~86% across Needham.

#6-10: Strong Performers in Needham

Opening a Kosher Restaurant in Needham shows ~86% average survivability. Top locations reach ~88%; lower-end sites show ~84%.
Italian Restaurant (Ranked #7): ~86% average in Needham. Best-case storefronts: ~87%. Challenging locations: ~84%.
American Restaurant is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Needham: ~86% chance on average, best at ~87%, challenging at ~84%.
Bangladeshi Restaurant — ~84%–~88% survivability range, with an average of ~85% across Needham.
Opening a South American Restaurant in Needham shows ~85% average survivability. Top locations reach ~87%; lower-end sites show ~84%.

Top 3 Compared Nationally

What revenue can a Needham business expect?

Best location vs. average location

Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing an address that maximizes your Revenue Capture Score in Needham could lead to you making ~2% more than if you selected an average location, and ~4% more than if you selected one of the worst locations.

How StreetSpring calculates location value

Different business models thrive in different micro-locations.
The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
Maximizing your Survivability Score is the most reliable path to profitability.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

The biggest opportunity gaps in Needham

The top businesses to open next in Needham:

Indonesian Restaurants — ~87% average survival rate, up to ~89% at best locations
Pet Boarding Facilities — ~87% average survival rate
Singaporean Restaurants — ~86% average survival rate

Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform — and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Our platform incorporates data from thousands of neighborhoods nationwide. A 2.9% vacancy rate in Needham reflects the current commercial environment; StreetSpring weights this directly in every survivability score for addresses in this neighborhood. Survivability scores are recalculated weekly as new competitors open and spending patterns shift — visit StreetSpring to see the current score for any open location in Needham right now.

See the Survivability Score for your new business

Related Articles:

See the Boston Business Survivability Rankings
See the Boston Neighborhood Survivability Rankings

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Needham.

What type of business should you rent your Needham storefront to?

Based on 2026 survivability scores across all business types in Needham, the top three tenant categories for landlords are Indonesian Restaurants, Pet Boarding Facilities, and Singaporean Restaurants.

The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood. Landlords can use StreetSpring to match their exact address to the tenant types most likely to stay open and paying rent for 2+ years.

Should you rent your Needham storefront to an Indonesian Restaurant?

StreetSpring's data confirms an Indonesian Restaurant as the highest-survivability tenant type for Needham. The best addresses show a ~89% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around ~85%.

Every survivability score StreetSpring produces is specific to the exact address and business type — not averaged across a zip code or neighborhood.

What should I consider when opening a business in Needham?

Survivability Score is the North Star metric for any location decision in Needham: it aggregates 100+ factors so you don't have to evaluate each one individually.

StreetSpring's analysis consistently shows Revenue Capture Score predicts survival odds more accurately than demographic data or foot traffic estimates alone.
StreetSpring's custom-built forecasting infrastructure powers every survivability score, combining data science with commercial real estate intelligence.
The most current survivability data for Needham is free to access on StreetSpring — no account required to check your specific address.

See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.

StreetSpring combines proprietary data with advanced analytics to predict which businesses will succeed. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

The hidden costs of operating in this neighborhood

Area to check	What can go wrong	How to de-risk it
Parking & visibility	Storefront looks great from the sidewalk but is invisible from the road.	Drive past at 30 mph from both directions. Count street parking + nearest paid lot capacity at peak hours.
Foot traffic seasonality	Looking at a peak-summer Tuesday and assuming year-round volume.	Walk the block at 3 different times across 2 different weeks. Ask neighboring tenants for their slow-season % drop.
Outdoor seating / sidewalk use	Signing assuming you can add patio seating, then learning the city requires a separate sidewalk-cafe permit with long lead times.	Check the city's sidewalk-cafe permit process up front. Confirm landlord allows outdoor build-out in the lease language.

Full dataset for Boston: /resources/data/boston-survivability-scores-2026.csv — includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Visual Data

Dumbbell chart comparing best vs worst locations for businesses in Boston — Best vs worst neighborhood per business type in Boston — the gap shows how much location choice matters for each subtype.

Treemap of Boston business mix by survivability score — Treemap of business mix in Boston — cell size = number of locations, color = average survivability score.

Radar chart of business-subtype survivability in Needham, Boston — Top business types scored in Needham, Boston — each axis is a subtype, taller = stronger survival rate.

How we measure this: Most retail competition operates within a 500-meter radius — outside that, behavioral economics show customers don't routinely switch.

**National benchmark:** Per BLS Business Employment Dynamics (March 2025), 5-year survival rates for StreetSpring's tracked industries span **47.8-61.8%**. Restaurants — the most-studied of these — survive at **50.0%** nationally, not the often-cited "80% fail" myth. The real risk premium is at the location level, which is what StreetSpring's model isolates.

**Neighborhood context.** Needham is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 in the 2020 U.S. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needham%2C_Massachusetts).

**LEHD demand-pattern signal (Needham):** Median 1-mile workplace jobs across Needham: **3,329** (LEHD LODES 2022). That works out to a **0.1:1 daytime-to-resident ratio** — a primarily-residential neighborhood with minimal daytime worker traffic. Of those workplace jobs, **112** are retail-sector. Use this to gauge whether your concept is weekday-commuter-driven or evening-and-weekend-driven.

Landmark anchor: Needham hosts Needham History Center and Museum, a history-museum that gives the neighborhood a cultural-destination layer most blocks don't have.

**Local economic context (Needham, Boston):** Needham's ACS unemployment rate is **4.4%** (below the 24-metro neighborhood median). County-level data adds two more anchors: BLS QCEW reports Boston-area average weekly wage of **$1,631** (above our 24-metro median), and the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey logged **2,338** new residential units in Suffolk County in 2025 — a rough proxy for the local growth environment a new business is opening into.

Related Resources

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