Knoxville ranks as 5th friendliest city to small business

Austin isn’t the only Lone Star gem getting props for its dedication to fostering small business.

Small businesses in New Hampshire gave the state an A+ for small business friendliness, a significant improvement from its B- in 2014, according to Thumbtack.com’s annual Small Business Friendliness Survey.

When it comes to deciphering whether a city government has loads of red tape for small business owners to cut through, perception is everything. One thing to keep in mind, however: While Thumback.com surveyed nearly 18,000 businesses nationwide, only 86 Springs-area businesses responded.

Among the 13 factors, the city earned a D+ grade for its health and safety regulation and the fairness of its tax system, a C for its employment, labor and hiring regulations and a C+ for its training and networking programs.

If you want to start a business, look no further than your own backyard. “New Orleans has earned a B from its small business owners, placing it just above average for other big cities in the country”. For example, labor rules were 88% more important in driving state friendliness scores when compared with tax rates. By contrast, licensed professionals in cities with complicated requirements or inconsistent enforcement reported the lowest approval rates. Thumbtack then evaluated states and cities against one another along more than a dozen metrics.

This was the first year Birmingham was included in the Thumbtack survey.

“We have found that state and city governments that promote local business training and focus on ease of regulatory compliance are consistently perceived as being friendliest to small business”, Jon Lieber, chief economist for Thumbtack, wrote. Respondents to the survey were largely very small service businesses with five or fewer employees.