Worcester improves in small business survey
Worcester has improved in a ranking for small business friendliness that placed the city second in New England, falling behind Manchester, N.H. but beating Boston and Providence.
Business owners were asked to rank small business friendliness across a number of variables by Thumbtack, a service that pairs independent professionals and small business owners with customers. The survey was taken by 44 businesses in Worcester, giving the city a rating of B-, or right around average. This was the highest overall grade in Massachusetts with Boston and Springfield earning C and D+ grades respectively. Manchester, N.H. received an A+ as it excelled in all areas and Providence received an F as it fell behind on tax code, licensing and zoning.
While a B- marks an improvement from the city’s grade of F last year, there is still room to improve, Thumbtack Chief Economist Jon Lieber said. Each city and state receives scores for 10 different areas of small business friendliness, such as regulations, zoning and environmental regulations. In Worcester, the ease of understanding tax regulations and licensing —both scored D+ — are points for improvement in the city, he said.
“Time costs are more important than the actual rate and money out of people’s pockets,” Lieber said referring to reportedly complicated tax structures. “The D+ indicates that licensing is a little more complicated than it needs to be and could stand to be simplified.”
However, there were bright spots in the scores for Worcester, leading to business owners being happier with the operating environment overall, he said. Chief among these improvements was increased awareness of training opportunities, Lieber said. People were also much more likely to answer that they would encourage someone to start a business in the area, he said.
The full Worcester rankings can be seen here. Statewide rankings can be viewed here and nationwide rankings are available here.
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