Midlands entrepreneurs find opportunity, easy regulations
South Carolina may be one of the best states to open a business, with USC situated in the most business-friendly region, according to a national survey by Thumbtack.com and the Kauffman Foundation.
South Carolina earned an “B+” overall for business friendliness, according to the study by Thumbtack, a San Francisco-based professional services site. The grades were based on responses from 6,022 small business owners across the country, including 70 in S.C. Participants were asked to rate several aspects of their region’s business climate, from ease of networking and employment costs to licensing regulations and tax code.
Thumbtack co-founder Sander Daniels noted that business owners surveyed in the Midlands were most satisfied.
“The small businesses in the Midlands region seem to feel that they have an environment in which they can succeed,” Daniels said in a release from Thumbtack.
This comes as no surprise to Bradley Morgan, a USC graduate and owner of Breaker’s Bar and Grill in Five Points. Morgan knew early in his college career that he wanted to start his own restaurant, and he knew exactly where he wanted to start it.
“It had to be in Columbia, and had to be in Five Points,” Morgan said. “I think that, with 30,000 people less than a mile away at the university, the market is just here. In this situation, I definitely felt confident if we built it they would certainly come.”
South Carolina earned an “A” in friendliness of the state’s regulatory system. The ranking joins a handful of national recognitions touted by the South Carolina Department of Commerce, including Forbes Magazine’s 2011 ranking for fifth best pro-business environment, considering state regulatory and tort climate, incentives, transportation and bond ratings.
“We thought less government regulation would make small businesses happy, but the most complaints we heard were about regulations not being clear or regularly enforced,” Daniels said. “It’s more than just how many regulations there are — accessibility, understandability and consistency are the most important to people.”
The Palmetto State’s lowest-scoring categories included availability of networking and training programs, which scored only a “C+”. Entrepreneurs like Morgan often network through personal connections, but Daniels said South Carolina and other states often lack formal networks for newcomers.
Fourth-year marketing and real estate student Ian Steen, who has served as president of the entrepreneurship club for two years, says that while Columbia has many startup opportunities for professionals, including the USC/Columbia Technology Incubator, EngenuitySC and IT-oLogy, many USC students lack a direct line into Columbia’s professional community.
“There are absolutely networking opportunities in Columbia, but networking doesn’t exist on as high a level as it should,” Steen said. “I think USC can do a better job of putting students in connection with business professionals of all types in the immediate surroundings.”
Daniels hopes that the result of the survey, the first to use direct input from business owners, will be used by both upcoming entrepreneurs and policy makers to help improve the nation’s non-corporate environment, state by state.
“We wanted to start discussion about what matters most to small businesses — both nationally and locally,” Daniels said. “In the end, we hope it will help small business in the area grow and expand.”