Best States to Start a Business in 2023
Starting a business can be tricky, especially when there’s red tape involved in registering and running a business and financial help is beyond reach.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, knowing which are the best states to start a business and how they stack up against one another can help to facilitate the decision-making process.
Here’s a look at the 10 best states to open a business in 2023.
10 best states to start a business in 2023
Utah is the best state to start a business in 2023, according to results from a recent study. The study measures 27 different metrics across three major business areas—business environment, access to resources, and cost—to evaluate and rank states according to how favorable their conditions for starting a business are.
Out of a possible score of 100, the state of Utah has 59.91 points. It’s also the state with the best access to resources and the state with the shortest average work week. Tied first with South Dakota and North Dakota, Utah also provides one of the easiest accesses to financing.
→ Click Here to Launch Your Online Business with Shopify
Florida follows in second place, with a score of 59.21—just 0.7 points behind Utah. The Sunshine State is also determined to have the best business environment for new startups.
Texas and Colorado rank next, with scores of 56.85 and 56.14, respectively. Idaho rounds out the five best states to start a business, scoring 55.88. Incidentally, Idaho is also the state that has experienced the biggest growth in the number of small businesses in the past year.
Here are the remaining five on this list of the 10 best states to start a business in 2023 and their corresponding scores:
- Georgia: 55.37
- Arizona: 53.79
- Nevada: 53.54
- Oklahoma: 53.12
- California: 52.97
Best states to start a business: business costs
Oklahoma is the state with the best conditions when it comes to overall business costs. This is followed by Mississippi and West Virginia.
Breaking this category down, Mississippi offers the lowest labor costs—they’re half of Maryland’s—the state with the highest labor costs.
Office space rent is also a key consideration for new businesses and the study shows that Iowa has the lowest rents for office spaces. Office rental prices there are half that of California, Alaska, and New York, the states with the most expensive office rentals.