Business Survivability in Shaw, Washington DC
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Shaw is a Veterinary Clinic with a 88.9% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: a Veterinary Clinic in Shaw (88.9% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #2 of 129 neighborhoods in and around Washington DC
- Neighborhood average: 82.3% two-year survival across the business types ranked here
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Shaw 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 Shaw is a Veterinary Clinic with a 88.9% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is an Eye Care Center with a 86.8% chance, followed by a Dentist Office with a 86.5% chance.
Is Shaw a good place to start a business?
Shaw is ranked number 2 of 129 neighborhoods in and around Washington DC to start a business, with an average 82.3% chance of lasting two or more years across the business types ranked there.
- At its best addresses in Shaw, the top-ranked business type scores 1.1 points above its own average in the neighborhood.
- Yet the same categories that score highest in Shaw can underperform significantly at the wrong address. Location precision within the neighborhood matters as much as choosing the neighborhood itself.
- The 9.9% housing vacancy rate in Shaw comes from the Census American Community Survey and describes homes and apartments, not shops or offices.
Employment and housing vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
How can you find the best location to open a business in Shaw?
StreetSpring narrows the decision down to the exact address, showing which blocks in Shaw produce the highest survivability scores for your concept. The location below represents the address in Shaw with the highest projected survivability for a Veterinary Clinic:
StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for a Veterinary Clinic in Shaw. Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform, and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. The model evaluates hundreds of factors, from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, site accessibility, and local market share potential.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Shaw?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 90.0% |
| 2 | Eye Care Center | 89.6% |
| 3 | Dentist Office | 89.6% |
| 4 | Chiropractor Office | 88.7% |
| 5 | Physical Therapy Clinic | 88.7% |
| 9 | Dance Club | 85.9% |
| 10 | Day Care Center | 85.1% |
| 11 | Chicken Shop | 85.0% |
| 12 | Salad Shop | 85.0% |
| 13 | Cosmetics Shop | 85.0% |
Ties at a good address: Eye Care Center and Dentist Office are tied; Chiropractor Office and Physical Therapy Clinic are tied; Chicken Shop, Salad Shop and Cosmetics Shop are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address next.
The rank column is the published file's rank within this place; a skipped number is a business type the file ranks here that this list leaves out to keep any one business family from filling it.
Highest Survivability in Shaw
- #1 Veterinary Clinic: 88.9% on average across Shaw; best at 90.0%, challenging at 70.0%.
- #2 Opening an Eye Care Center in Shaw shows 86.8% average survivability. Top locations reach 90.0%; lower-end sites show 79.0%.
- #3 Dentist Office (Ranked #3): 86.5% average in Shaw. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 71.7%.
- #4 Chiropractor Office is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Shaw: 87.5% chance on average, best at 88.7%, challenging at 74.3%.
- #5 Physical Therapy Clinic: 84.9% on average across Shaw; best at 89.6%, challenging at 68.3%.
Strong Performers in Shaw
- #9 Opening a Dance Club in Shaw shows 83.7% average survivability. Top locations reach 86.0%; lower-end sites show 66.2%.
- #10 Day Care Center (Ranked #10): 80.6% average in Shaw. Best-case storefronts: 85.6%. Challenging locations: 64.0%.
- #11 Chicken Shop is ranked #11 for top businesses to open in Shaw: 83.3% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 77.4%.
- #12 Salad Shop: 83.3% on average across Shaw; best at 85.0%, challenging at 77.8%.
- #13 Opening a Cosmetics Shop in Shaw shows 83.0% average survivability. Top locations reach 85.0%; lower-end sites show 76.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
- Dentist Office: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Shaw make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, prioritizing survivability score in your site-selection process in Shaw starts with the Revenue Capture Score, the most important factor in choosing a location: StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
How StreetSpring calculates location value
- No two business types have identical location needs; survivability scores reflect these differences at the address level.
- Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make: it sets every other variable in motion.
- Compare the Revenue Capture Score of each shortlisted address first: it is the top factor in choosing a location, and it estimates the revenue a business can capture there.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront.
What businesses should open next in Shaw?
The top businesses to open next in Shaw:
- Veterinary Clinics: 88.9% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Eye Care Centers: 86.8% average survival rate
- Dentist Offices: 86.5% average survival rate
Even the best-ranked neighborhoods contain locations that underperform, and the worst-ranked ones have hidden gems. Our training data spans 500+ business types across 24 major metros, giving our models the breadth to predict outcomes across nearly any commercial concept. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool. Shaw sits at 98.4% employment and 9.9% housing vacancy in Census data, context the model reads alongside competition and consumer spending. These rankings are a snapshot; StreetSpring regularly recalculates survivability for every location in Shaw, incorporating the latest competitive openings, closures, and spending data: check current locations now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Washington DC Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Washington DC Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Veterinary Clinic survivability across Washington DC neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Shaw.
What type of business should you rent your Shaw storefront to?
StreetSpring's analysis shows that the most promising business categories for your property in Shaw are Veterinary Clinics, Eye Care Centers, and Dentist Offices.
- Site selection is the highest-leverage decision most entrepreneurs make: it sets every other variable in motion.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront. StreetSpring can show you which specific address in your portfolio scores highest for each tenant type.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Washington DC Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Shaw storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis strongly supports renting to a Veterinary Clinic in Shaw: best-in-class addresses achieve 90.0% survivability, and even the lower-end sites come in at 70.0%.
- Our address-level scoring shows the exact survivability odds for 500+ business types at any given storefront.
What should I consider when opening a business in Shaw?
When opening a business in Shaw, compare the Survivability Scores of your shortlisted addresses and favor the highest one your budget allows.
- StreetSpring's proprietary Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when choosing where to open.
- These predictions are generated by StreetSpring's proprietary machine learning system, validated against hundreds of thousands of real business outcomes.
- You can check the Survivability Score for any storefront in Shaw with a free 10-minute trial of StreetSpring's live tool.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's models are built from millions of real business outcomes, making predictions grounded in what actually happened. Aggregated survivability rankings for Washington DC are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Washington DC: /resources/data/washington-dc-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.