Small Business Survival Index 2009
sbecouncil.org
As far as I can tell, this ranking is strictly from a policy and numbers perspective, and does not take into account intangibles such as landscapes and climates.
sbecouncil.org
(Remember we aren't debating the morality of such practices or whether it's worth the higher costs we're only looking at the economic impact in our current health care system)
Since businesses are expected to cover a large chunk of their employees' health care under our current system that makes health care policy in a given state relevant to every small business
Non-guaranteed-coverage is founder-unfriendly. Guaranteed issue, even if it inevitably raises the cost of premiums, at least levels the playing field between established companies with group plans (which are already effectively guaranteed issue and which already cover the majority of residents in most states) and 2 person startup shops.
We can argue this all day, but the point is: this report is a thinly-veiled advocacy piece for the US CoC's agenda. It's not a real study of any sort.
Guaranteed-issue states have higher health insurance costs.
Judging from their report, it seems like most of the factors are related to various forms of taxes and healthcare. What about significant factors like talent or mentorship? Size of market and characteristics of the population?
California is such a mess in large part because it has so many successful companies that are stuck here.
1) These are some weird-looking results and make my somewhat skeptical of the metrics.
2) Accepting them at face value, the conclusion I draw is that the legal and regulatory environment (which is what this is really measuring) doesn't matter nearly as much as people on both sides think it does. Not to say it doesn't matter at all - I'm sure that, especially at the margins, it does. But California and Boston rank pretty poorly, and yet are doing okay for new business (and, at least as far as Boston is concerned, that includes businesses of the "real", not web-startup, variety).
I think it is missing some important metrics, but it's a good starting point for anyone considering entrepreneurship but undecided on a state, because it clearly lays out how the rankings were derived.