South Carolina is one of the best places to set up and run a small business

Health, Safety and Environmental Regulations rated extremely business-friendly by local small entrepreneurs

South Carolina female business owners more optimistic about their financial future than their male counterparts.

South Carolina small business owners give lowest ratings to state and local governments’ training and networking programs.

Columbia, SC- May 9, 2012—South Carolina ranked among the top small business-friendly states according to a survey undertaken by Thumbtack.com in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation.  Thumbtack.com connects service professionals in its 275,000 small business network with prospective customers.  Over 6,000 small business owners, most with less than five employees, in the Thumbtack.com database responded to the survey.

South Carolina businesses responding gave the state a B+ grade for overall friendliness.  In particular, South Carolina earned an A+ grade for the business friendliness on health, safety and environmental regulations. The cost of hiring a new employee also received an A+ and the ease of starting a new business was given an A-.

Small businesses generally viewed state and local government regulations as very friendly giving them a solid A. Employment, labor and hiring regulations were given an A. Land use and zoning regulations were given an A-.

A B+ was given to state and local licensing that included licensing forms, requirements and fees.  Even the tax code and tax-related regulations were rated as a B.

“In spite of all the controversy about regulations these results indicate that there is little concern about them in our state,” said Frank Knapp, Jr., president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, who pointed out that this finding was in line with other national surveys.

“What really brought South Carolina’s overall small-business friendliness score down was something surprising—training and networking.  Both received a C+.  We either don’t have enough of these opportunities or we aren’t doing a good job of getting the word out about them or both.  We obviously have a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Another unexpected finding of the survey shows that women-owned small businesses in South Carolina were significantly more optimistic about their financial future than their male counterparts. Female entrepreneurs were 15% more likely than male entrepreneurs to rate their companies' financial situation as likely to improve over the coming year.

For more information on the survey visit www.thumbtack.com/sc