Saturday, October 15, 2005

Scar of the North




My adopted State of Minnesota is known as "L'Etoile du Nord" which apparently is French for "start your business here and pray to God you can continue making a profit and add jobs.........." but I haven't studied French since high school so my translation might be inaccurate. Since I incorporated my firm in Minnesota the work of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), whom I have known for years in Washington DC, has taken on even greater personal importance for me. I invite you to educate yourself via the report mentioned below then stop by to help me pack up my belongings so I can move to South Dakota where they actually want jobs to be created (okay, I admit it I won't leave Minnesota but it is clear to me that my local activism will have to increase -- watch for future postings on this subject).

On October 12, 2005, SBE Council released its tenth annual rankings of the states according to their respective public policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship in the ‘Small Business Survival Index 2005. The ‘Small Business Survival Index’ for 2005 has been revised and expanded, including the addition of four measures of health care regulation. The entire report is available at www.sbecouncil.org.

In terms of their policy environments, the most entrepreneur-friendly states under the ‘Small Business Survival Index 2005’ are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Wyoming, 4) Washington, 5) Michigan, 6) Florida, 7) Mississippi, 8) Alabama, 9) Indiana, 10) Colorado, 11) Texas, 12) South Carolina, 13) Virginia, 14) Pennsylvania, and 15) Tennessee.

In contrast, the most anti-entrepreneur policy environments are offered by the following: 37) Oregon, 38) Montana, 39) North Carolina, 40) Ohio, 41) Iowa, 42) Massachusetts, 43) Vermont, 44) New York, 45) New Jersey, 46) Hawaii, 47) Minnesota, 48) Rhode Island, 49) Maine, 50) California and 51) District of Columbia (for more on DC -- please review my "Geography of Death" posting, why the hell does anyone live in this city!!!???) .

To review your own state the complete rankings are found at: http://www.sbecouncil.org/Media/pdf/SBSI_2005.pdf

See you at the capitol,

Todd

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Todd,

I was actually impressed by your blog last weekend. Just so you know, I will be an occassional visitor..so watch out for critical comments ;-) I hope you don't mind I put a link in my new blog (!!!) to yours. If you don't want crazy Dutch people to read it, just let me know...