City & state rated biz-friendy, but have competition

By Brice Wallace

Both Salt Lake City and Utah fared well in an annual survey of small-business friendliness, although both face intense nearby competition.

Utah was ranked seventh-best among states and Salt Lake City was ninth among 80 cities in the Small Business Friendliness Survey conducted by Thumbtack, an application and website that helps people find local professionals for projects. The largest continuous survey of its kind, it involved surveying more than 13,000 small-business owners to evaluate how easy state and local governments make it to start, operate and grow a small business. The Utah and Salt Lake City results are based on surveys of business owners in those areas.

Utah was given an A-plus for overall friendliness. Salt Lake City earned an A.

{mprestriction ids="1,3"}“The small-business owners we heard from in Utah were 4 percent more positive about their state’s support for small businesses than the national average, leading to their A-plus grade overall,” said Lucas Puente, Thumbtack economist. “And compared to nearby states, such as Nevada (C) and Colorado (A), Utah did generally better.”

However, nearby Wyoming was the top-ranked state and Idaho was third, with both earning an A-plus. Among cities, Boise topped the rankings.

Puente noted that surveyed small-business owners in Salt Lake City were 5 percent more positive about the city’s support for small businesses than the national average. “And compared to nearby cities, such as Denver (B-plus) and Las Vegas (C), Salt Lake City did generally better,” he said.

Utah, Wyoming and Idaho were joined Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine and Texas as A-plus states. States with an F grade are worst-ranked New Mexico, Alaska and Illinois.

In subcategories, Utah received an A-plus and third-among-states ranking for health and safety; an A for government websites (seventh); an A-minus for ease of starting a business (11th); a B-plus for employment, labor and hiring regulations (23rd); a B for zoning (22nd); a B-plus for both tax regulations and environmental rules (both 21st); a B for overall regulations (24th); a B-minus for licensing requirements (29th); a C-plus for ease of hiring (25th); and a C-minus for training opportunities (36th).

Joining top-ranked Boise in the A-plus list of cities were Worchester, Massachusetts; Austin, Texas; San Antonio; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Salt Lake City’s A was also attained by Lawrence, Massachusetts; Louisville; and Memphis. Cities with an F grade are bottom-ranked Honolulu; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Rochester, New York.

In subcategories, Salt Lake City received an A for ease of hiring, 15th among the 80 cities; a B-plus for ease of starting a business (25th) and employment, labor and hiring regulations (30th); a B for government websites (30th) and health and safety (31st); a B-minus for overall regulations (38th), training opportunities (38th) and tax regulations (39th); a C-plus for zoning (30th) and environmental rules (53rd); and a C for licensing requirements (47th).

Details are at www.thumbtack.com/survey.{/mprestriction}