Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, has released new data showing that Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah all earned A+’s for their friendliness towards small businesses. 

In contrast, small business owners gave California, Hawaii, Vermont, and
Rhode Island an F, while New York narrowly avoided this lowest category
with a D grade.  Top performing cities included Oklahoma City, Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Antonio.

There are a lot of "business climate rankings," but there aren’t any that draw upon considerable data from small business owners themselves. The Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey is the only survey to draw data from an extensive, nationwide universe of job creators and entrepreneurs themselves in order to investigate the best places in the country to do business.

"Six thousand small business owners have told an unusually nuanced story about what they value in their local government," said Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com. "Although Texas and Idaho clearly come out on top as the nation’s friendliest states towards small business, entrepreneurs value a lot more than just low tax rates. Easy-to-understand licensing regulations and well-publicized training programs are critical tools necessary to support small business."

Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah all scored A+’s for their treatment of small business while California, Hawaii, Vermont, and Rhode Island received F’s.

After a two-month survey of over 6,000 small business owners nationwide, Thumbtack.com has released new data showing that small businesses rank Oklahoma as the #3 friendliest state nationwide towards small businesses.
 
Some of the key findings for Oklahoma include:
   •  Oklahoma soared above its rivals in a variety of categories, earning an A-, A, or A+ grade in 10 of 12 possible graded rankings. The state was the #3 friendliest nationwide towards small businesses, the #4 easiest nationwide for starting a new business, and the #6 least-costly state in the country for hiring a new employee.
   •  Surprisingly, women-owned small businesses in Oklahoma felt much more comfortable economically than did their male counterparts. Female entrepreneurs were 29% more likely than male entrepreneurs to rate their company’s current financial situation as "good" or "very good".

The two-month survey of over 6,000 small business owners was conducted nationwide. The data shines a new light on the United States’ business regulatory climate and the nation’s economic health.
 
"Six thousand small business owners have told an unusually nuanced story about what they value in their state or city government," said Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com. "Although Texas and Idaho clearly come out on top as the nation’s friendliest states towards small business, entrepreneurs value a lot more than just low tax rates. Easy-to-understand licensing regulations and well-publicized training programs are often overlooked as critical tools necessary to support small business."
 
Some of the total key findings include:
   •  Small businesses said licensing requirements were nearly twice as important as tax rates in determining their state or city government’s overall business-friendliness.
   •  An important predictor of small business friendliness was whether small business owners are aware of the state or local government offering training programs for small businesses.
   •  Among small business owners nationally, women were 9% more likely than men to feel supported by their state governments.
 
"Asking entrepreneurs to rank state friendliness to their businesses is a powerful resource for helping policymakers understand the needs of business owners and for helping aspiring founders understand the full dimensions of their business environment," said Dane Stangler, director of research at the Kauffman Foundation.