There are different approaches when it comes to picking the best state to expand your business into. While some owners select a location based on credits, incentives and state tax laws, others make the decision weighing factors like infrastructure, access to transportation and quality of life. What if you want to consider all the various factors? Area Development recently ranked the top states for doing business based on a survey of site selection consultants.
Top States for Doing Business – Survey Results
Area Development’s survey factored in three main areas:
- Overall business environment (such as cost of doing business and incentive programs)
- Labor climate (like competitive labor costs and availability of skilled labor)
- Infrastructure and global access (such as competitive utility rates and water outlook)
The results ranked the top 10 states for doing business as:
- Georgia
- Texas
- South Carolina
- Alabama
- Tennessee
- Louisiana
- Indiana
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Mississippi
As you can see, the list is dominated by states in the Southern and mid-Southern region of the country. Despite making it into the top 10 last year, California’s reputation amongst site consultants continues to fall and it fell off the list of top states in 2014. This year it ranked high in just three sub-categories: 1) Access to Capital and Project Funding, 2) Availability of Skilled Labor and 3) Distribution/Supply Chain Hubs.
Read more survey results here.
About This Survey
If you look around, you’ll find all sorts of articles about the top states for doing business, but what makes this list so interesting is the survey conducted behind it. By asking site consultants for their feedback, business owners are given a more accurate picture of each state’s benefits and challenges because site consultants look at a wide variety of criteria a business owner would need to consider, from access to transportation, infrastructure and education to quality of life issues and tax incentives.
If your company is planning expansion into another state, let us know if we can be of assistance! Miles Consulting can help you make an informed decision by engaging in analysis like this for your business, mostly as it relates to the tax credit and incentive side of the equation.
Miles Consulting Group, Inc. is a professional service firm in San Jose, California specializing in multi-state tax solutions. Our firm addresses state and local tax issues for our clients, including general state tax consulting, nexus reviews, tax credit and tax incentive maximization, income tax and sales/use tax planning and other special projects, including the new California Competes Tax Credit. To learn more, contact us today at www.MilesConsultingGroup.com.
Photo Credit: Kyle McDonald
