Is Denver small-business friendly?

Across the country, Colorado ranked No. 5 for its business friendly environment.

Small business owners gave New Orleans a grade of B for overall business friendliness, with an A+ for labor regulations, according to Thumbtack’s annual Small Business Friendliness Survey.

Among the nationwide findings, Thumbtack said the participating businesses found licensing rules were more important than taxes and training programs on starting a business and navigating the local economic and regulatory environment were the most important factor. Questions asked included rating state and city governments across policy factors.

The state’s scores in the other categories, such as regulations, tax code and zoning, ran the gamut of mediocrity, from “C+” to “D-“.

If you want to start a business, look no further than your own backyard.

The state’s worst score was a B for ease of hiring.

As long as the licensing process isn’t complicated, small business owners and entrepreneurs required to be licensed were just as favorable toward their city governments as those that didn’t have to be licensed. Thumbtack then aggregated the results and evaluated cities and states against over a dozen metrics.

Investing in a high-quality, easy-to-use website that provides useful information and decreases the costs of regulatory compliance improves overall perceptions of a local or state government.

While small-business confidence rebounded in July from a 15-month low, there are still some U.S. cities where it is hard for entrepreneurial businesses to grow.

Among the various categories that made up the overall grade, New Jersey fared best in ease of hiring, where it got a “B” grade from Thumbtack. Respondents to the survey were largely very small service businesses with five or fewer employees.