The latest "Small Businesses Friendliness Survey" done by Kauffman.org and Thumbtack.com was already available. This survey was conducted on 7,766 small businesses across the United States. Austin, Virginia Beach and Houston came out as the top performing cities. While California and Illinois both receives a grade of "D". This states was given by small businesses an "F" namely Hawaii, Maine and Rhode Island. The Thumbtack.com Small Business Friendliness Survey is the only survey to obtain data from an extensive, nationwide universe of job creators and entrepreneurs in order to determine the most business-friendly locations.
Some of the survey's key findings include:
Texas had three of the top five cities (Austin, Houston and San Antonio), while California was home to three of the bottom five (Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento). Newark, NJ finished last in this year's rankings.
Professional licensing requirements were 30 percent more important than taxes in determining a state's overall business-friendliness, confirming the findings from last year's study. Furthermore, this year's research revealed that 40 percent of U.S. small businesses are subject to licensing regulations by multiple jurisdictions or levels of government.
Small businesses were relatively unconcerned with tax rates — more than half of small business owners felt they pay about the right share of taxes.
African-American and Hispanic small business owners were significantly more likely than their white counterparts to encourage others to start a new business.
North Carolina was the most improved state, making strides across multiple categories and rising from a "C+'" to a "B+" grade overall.
The ease of obtaining health insurance was an important factor for many businesses. One-third of small business owners rated obtaining and keeping health insurance as "Very Difficult," versus only 6 percent who rated it "Very Easy."