National Small Business Friendliness Survey

A study that connected with over 12,000 small business owners across our nation is shedding some new light and also reaffirming past findings.  This survey conducted by Thumbtack, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation did not include manufacturers or retail operations.  The overall findings suggested that small businesses nationally felt reasonable, well-enforced licensing is of greater concern than the tax code, and gave Michigan a C- in overall friendliness for small business.

Michigan, which has been labeled the “comeback state”, is seeing slight improvements in these findings as well. For the previous two years, Michigan ranked a D in overall friendliness for small business, and as previously noted, has received a C- in overall friendliness for small businesses for this year. The findings seem to indicate also that those small business owners who were aware of training programs offered by their government were more inclined to state that their government was friendlier to businesses in the survey.

Other highlights from the survey:

– The topmost issue in Michigan seemed to be the ease of starting a business, which earned a D+
– Michigan earned a B+ for the ease of hiring
– Michigan’s small businesses rated the state as the third-hardest state in which to get health insurance
– Positively, Michigan was among the top ten most prepared nationally for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act
– Regulations earned a C+ from Michigan respondents to the Thumbtack survey, while health and safety, licensing, and environmental considerations earned a B
– The top-rated states overall were Utah, Idaho, Texas, Virginia and Louisiana
– The lowest-rated were Rhode Island, Illinois, California, Connecticut and New Jersey
– The top three issues for small businesses nationwide was having access to training programs and simple tax regulations

A copy of the survey’s full methodology and analysis paper is available upon request by emailing: Jon Lieber at jon.lieber@thumbtack.com

Source: thumbtack.com/survey