Ever wonder what states are the most business friendly? Or which ones have the most transparent steps to creating a registered business?
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A quick Google search will reveal a myriad of studies, articles and opinions on that very question. But Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Kauffman Association, actually interviewed over 6,000 small business owners to see where individual state ranked in terms of business friendliness. And they uncovered some extremely interesting facts. For example, there were substantial difference between how supportive men and women thought certain states were; women entrepreneurs in Iowa were half as likely to rate their state as supportive of them as men were. And small business care almost twice as much about licensing regulations as they do about tax rates when ranking their state!
This type of insight is extremely important, and highly useful, for entrepreneurs researching possible states to incorporate in. Popular opinion is usually that the state with the lowest tax rate was always the most business friendly, but that old supposition has been blown out of the water thanks to Thumbtack.
The most business friendly states, with all of the metrics considered, were Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah while California, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont were awarded a failing grade.
Thumbtack.com has released all of this information both in the form of an interactive map. If you’d like to look at the raw data, the link to that information is at the end of the “Survey findings and summary” section.