Tennessee achieves 'A' grade from small businesses for low cost of hiring and tax code

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sander Daniels <sdaniels@thumbtack.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Subject: Tennessee achieves 'A' grade from small businesses for low cost of hiring and tax code
To: jeff.fleming.kingsport@gmail.com


Hi Jeff,

I've seen your work at the Kingsport Tennessee and think a new study we'll be releasing may be right up your alley.

I'm Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com - we're a site where you can easily hire local help (photographers, tutors, carpenters, etc.). We've partnered with the Kauffman Foundation to conduct a survey of 6,000 of the small businesses on our site. We've ranked the friendliness of states and cities towards small business, and we have just released the rankings for Tennessee. Tennessee excels, ranking as the #6 least costly state nationwide for hiring a new employee.

You can see the early release of Tennessee's results here: www.thumbtack.com/tn

The rankings are based on a survey of real small business owners, like wedding photographers, auto mechanics, and yoga instructors.

I've included a bunch of additional info below - do you think this could be an interesting story for your audience?

Best,
Sander
Co-founder, Thumbtack.com
415-496-6731

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Small businesses award Tennessee A grade as nation's #6 least costly for hiring new employee

 

State also earns high marks for business-friendly regulations and tax code

 

"Tennessee's greatest asset is that it does not charge income tax to residents. As a small business owner, this makes it easier for me to operate because it is one less tax obligation I have to meet, both for myself and for any employees I might eventually have."
- Entertainer, Nashville

 

San Francisco, CA, June 11, 2012: Today Thumbtack.com, in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, has released new data showing that small businesses rank Tennessee among the top ten least costly states nationwide for hiring a new employee.  

There are a lot of "business climate rankings", but there aren't any that draw upon considerable data from small business owners themselves. The Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey is the only survey to draw data from an extensive, nationwide universe of job creators and entrepreneurs themselves in order to investigate the best places in the country to do business.

"After a two-month survey of over 6,000 small business owners nationwide, Tennessee ranked very favorably across a variety of categories," said Sander Daniels, co-founder of Thumbtack.com. "Small businesses continue to feel squeezed by the current economic realities, and state and local policies can mean the difference between success and failure. In a variety of areas, Tennessee seems to be doing a great job helping its small businesses succeed."

Some of the key findings for Tennessee include:

• Tennessee excelled in a variety of categories earning 'A' grades for the small business friendliness of its tax codea and its zoning regulations.
• Surprisingly, women-owned small businesses in Tennessee felt much more comfortable economically than did their male counterparts. Female entrepreneurs were 38% more likely than male entrepreneurs to rate their company's current financial situation as "good" or "very good".
• Although Tennessee ranked highly in many categories, it earned only a 'B-' grade for its overall small business friendliness. This is partly the result of Tennessee small businesses' concern over their future economic prospects, for which the state ranked #30 nationwide.
• Eastern Tennessee is the state's stand-out region, receiving #1 rankings for 5 of the 17 categories rated by small businesses.
• Small businesses run by liberals seem to be doing significantly better than small businesses run by conservatives. Liberal entrepreneurs in Tennessee were 25% more likely than the state's conservative entrepreneurs to rate their business's financial situation as "good" or "very good".

The full survey results can be seen here and include full sets of rankings, dozens of easily searchable quotes from Tennessee small businesses, regional comparisons within states, and Census data comparing Tennessee's key demographics against those of other states.

"I've had no problems whatsoever in establishing and maintaining my business here in Tennessee. I don't think that I would be as happy anywhere else as I am here."
- CPR instructor, Murfreesboro

Survey methodology

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, such as:

• "In general, how would you rate your state's support of small business owners?"
• "Would you discourage or encourage someone from starting a new business in your state?" and
• "How would you rate your company's financial situation today?"

Thumbtack.com and Kauffman ranked states and cities against one another along 15 metrics.  The full methodology paper can be found here.

What is Thumbtack.com?

Thumbtack.com is a place where you can hire help locally. Need a DJ, carpenter, boot camp instructor, or hot dog truck caterer?  Tell us what you need, and we'll bring you 3-5 bids on that job to your email inbox within 24 hours. More than 275,000 small businesses and freelancers have listed their services on Thumbtack nationwide.