Why Texas is the Best Place to Start a Business

It's no secret that Texas is one of the best places to start a business. With its stable business climate, low taxes, excellent transportation infrastructure, skilled labor, and one of the most business-friendly state governments in the country, it's no wonder why businesses across the country are flocking to the Lone Star State. Texas has always had an excellent reputation for business-friendly environments, but in the past decade this prestigious reputation has reached new heights. With no corporate income tax or personal income tax, Texas is continually ranked as one of the best places to do business.

Coupled with a low cost of living, it's no surprise that businesses across the country are queuing up at the front door of Texas. Over the past 10 years, there has been a massive influx of corporate headquarters and regional centers fleeing high-cost, high-regulation markets, such as San Francisco. If the opening sentence still didn't warn you, Texas earned first place as the best overall state to start a business. The methodology for the report examined the conditions that make business creation ideal. Some of these factors were access to capital, available talent in the workforce, and affordable office space.

Texas narrowly outperformed Utah with a total score of 61.05 and scored No. 1 in access to capital. There was a time, not long ago, when many entrepreneurs flocked mainly to Delaware and Nevada to do business. Delaware has the reputation of being “the corporate capital of the world due to its business-friendly corporate tax laws. These laws have allowed the state to become the legal home of more than 1 million business entities.

Nevada also has a reputation as a tax haven, as the state has no corporate or personal income taxes. Talent across the spectrum of technology, science and Texas' major vertical industries, including energy, healthcare, logistics, retail and legal, have all the right ingredients to create a strong ecosystem now and the prospect of a future talent explosion to boost the state. Let's take a closer look at the reasons entrepreneurs are turning to Texas to launch small businesses. In addition to its low taxes and cost of living, Texas has a strong history of innovation, from aerospace advances such as the Johnson Space Center in Houston to biomedical achievements such as the first artificial heart transplant at the Texas Heart Institute. Texas ranked 11th overall for business tax climate according to an index compiled by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has been evaluating tax policy for more than 80 years. From burgeoning venture capital investments to growing business activity, Texas is home to a strong business environment. It will be very difficult for Texas not to be more expensive in large investments due to its heavy tax burden. The startup attracted attention and talent from other Texas cities including major metropolitan areas such as San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.

Venture capital dollars that were once set aside for coastal startups are now fueling the Texas economy and creating a virtuous circle of profits. Instead of using good public policy to create jobs, it turns out that the Texas Economic Development Act has only served to line the pockets of big companies that were going to invest in Texas anyway. CNBC recently tracked down tech startup Bractlet and told the story of why its co-founders decided to do business in Texas. It's quite simple: with its stable business climate, low taxes, excellent transportation infrastructure, skilled labor force and one of the most business-friendly state governments in the country - it's no wonder why businesses across America are turning their attention towards Texas.