Tucson is one of the least friendly cities towards small businesses according to a study conducted by Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Texas had three of the top five cities Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin, while California was home to the bottom three Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento
The study found that:
• Small businesses said licensing requirements were nearly twice as important as tax-related regulations in determining 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.
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.
Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com. said, “Although Texas and Idaho clearly come out on top as the nation’s friendliest states toward small business, entrepreneurs value a lot more than just tax-related regulations. Easy-to-understand licensing regulations and well-publicized training programs are critical tools necessary to support small business.”
Thumbtack.com surveyed 6,022 small businesses across the United States. The survey asked questions about the friendliness of states towards small business and about small business finances in order to measure states and cities along 21 metrics.
Not every small business owner in the Tucson area is unhappy. One electronic repair technician responded positively to an open question on the survey, “Doing business in Arizona is fairly easy because a lot of other companies in my profession either don’t answer the phone or show up on time, or do their job properly due to lack of knowledge.”
Tucson has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some of the key findings for Arizona include:
• Arizona ranked in the bottom 10 nationwide for having well-publicized training programs.
• Male-owned small businesses in Arizona felt significantly more supported by the state than their female counterparts. Male entrepreneurs were 16% more likely than female entrepreneurs to rate Arizona as supportive or very supportive of small business.