Utah Tops List of Best States for Entrepreneurs
Amazon analyzed which states housed the most small and medium-size businesses per capita.
Want to start a business? Move to Utah. According to Amazon’s latest research the beehive state holds the most small to medium-size businesses per capita, outpacing other commerce hotspots like New York and California.
“It is exciting to see Utah at the top of our list ahead of other great entrepreneurial states like California and New York,” said Nicholas Denissen, vice president at Amazon. “From incredible handmade artisans to small businesses inventing sustainable and eco-friendly products, there are thousands of Utah-based businesses demonstrating a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit — more per capita than in any other state. More than 300,000 small and medium-size businesses from across the U.S. started selling on Amazon in 2017, and we’re working hard to help them all keep growing.”
According to an Amazon spokesman, half of the items sold on the platform are by small and medium-size businesses. With Amazon web service’s extensive suite of solutions, this shouldn’t be terribly surprising. Merchants can use offerings ranging from security, identity, and compliance to analytics, augmented and virtual realities, machine learning and even game development.
The spokesman explained that businesses that select Amazon’s fulfillment options qualifies their items to be Prime eligible — enabling them to reach Amazon power users. “Small and medium-size businesses on Amazon come from every state in the U.S. and more than 130 countries around the world,” the spokesman said.
But while Utah might be a destination for eager entrepreneurs, the spokesman declined to comment if this might persuade Amazon executives to set up its second headquarters in the state. Last week, media reports revealed Amazon executives were inquiring officials of prospective headquarter locations beyond basic logistics, questioning how tax dollars might be used for affordable housing — and how cities might handle an influx of Amazon employees, and correlating rush hour traffic.
Cities in the running run the real estate gamut, ranging from Denver to Pittsburg to Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York.
It’s services such as Amazon’s commerce vertical that have democratized fashion businesses — enabling start-ups to not move to expensive locales like Silicon Valley or Manhattan — though California and New York rounded out the top three of Amazon’s rankings.
Companies such as GoDaddy, Comcast, Hulu and Shutterfly all use Amazon Web Service solutions.