Find the ideal location for your business in Ohio

Looking for that perfect location to locate or expand your business? Check out Ohio InSite, a powerful site selection tool designed to help investors find the Ohio location that best suits their project's needs. It provides workforce and demographic data, business data, Ohio sites and buildings.

Using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology users can quickly and easily identify the optimal location, down to a specific property, for any capital investment project in Ohio.

It's a great selection tool for businesses and consultants throughout the site selection process - it efficiently and quickly delivers answers to the critical location decision questions through a map-based and dynamic interface.

Ohio's attractive business environment is just one of many reasons CEOs are choosing the Buckeye State as a location for capital investment more often than any other state in the country. In fact, a recent report by the Quantitative Economics and Statistics Practices (QUEST) of Ernst & Young in conjunction with the Council On State Taxation (COST), ranks Ohio as third in the nation for friendliest tax environment.

In addition, an increasing number of executives are finding that they can enjoy professional success and a rewarding personal life without sacrificing one for the other in Ohio. The state’s low-cost, low-stress communities and short commutes create the State of Perfect Balance, where you can achieve both professional and personal success without sacrificing one for the other. Ohio truly is the State of Perfect Balance.

Ideal location selection model for entrepreneurial startups

Choosing a location is an important strategic choice, one that should be based on a thorough consideration of established criteria and relevant data. Entrepreneurs must set aside stereotypes, prejudices, and preconceived notions and make the choice based on solid, accurate information.

If Appalachia Ohio is not the first place you think of as a site for your new enterprise, I'm not surprised. But when you approach the site selection process with an open mind, it opens up a unique set of successful business opportunities you won't find elsewhere. Check the data, and you'll see Appalachia Ohio matches the experts' criteria for the ideal location very well.

According to small business experts, there are four criteria that make up an ideal location for business development: access to business capital and support services, access to knowledge and labor, access to supply chain and markets and access to a balanced life.

Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia Region provides all the resources the experts say are critical to success, along with lower overhead costs that give more value to every dollar invested in your company. It’s a perfect balance for success.

Read what Inc. magazine has to say about the region.

Ohio Third Frontier, Supporting Programs Win Top Tech Awards

States across the nation are looking to Ohio and the Ohio Third Frontier program as the model for success in creating, growing and sustaining high-tech jobs, industries and businesses. The Ohio Third Frontier program and its regionally focused Entrepreneurial Signature Programs (ESPs) have claimed several prestigious awards from nationally recognized organizations that track economic development efforts.

The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) recently awarded Ohio Third Frontier the "Excellence in Economic Development Award" for its Ohio's National Model for Technology-Based Economic Development in the category of Technology-Based Economic Development for communities with populations of greater than 500,000. In addition, JumpStart Inc., Northeast Ohio's regional ESP, was named the sole winner of the State Science Technology Institute's (SSTI) 2010 Excellence in TBED Award in the Building Entrepreneurial Capacity category. JumpStart was recognized for its four-year economic impact of $267 million in Northeast Ohio, which includes the creation and retention of more than 800 jobs.

IEDC and SSTI are two of the nation's leading organizations focused on economic development activity. The IEDC annual conference is the world's largest gathering of economic developers to recognize the best economic development programs and partnerships, marketing materials, and the year's most influential leaders. IEDC's Excellence in Economic Development Awards recognize the world's best economic development programs and partnerships, marketing materials, and the year's most influential leaders. SSTI is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving government-industry programs that encourage economic growth through the application of science and technology.

According to the 2009 "Making an Impact" report conducted by SRI, Ohio Third Frontier's strategies for investing in Ohio's high-tech clusters contain all the elements associated with global best practices in technology cluster development, and indicate that these investments are already generating positive economic outcomes for Ohio's economy in terms of growth in technology sector employment, output, and wages. Since its inception, the Ohio Third Frontier has created and attracted nearly 600 companies, created more than 60,000 direct and indirect jobs, and helped create $6.6 billion in economic impact in Ohio, a 9:1 return on investment.

Ohio Third Frontier is helping to create companies and careers that didn't exist just a few years ago. Ohio's economic development and job growth strategies are creating a healthy business climate in the state and are further proof that Ohio should be on every CEO's and entrepreneur's list of location options. Click here for more information about Ohio Third Frontier.

Economic Developers Discuss New Paradigms of Business Development

Ohio is hosting the world's largest gathering of economic development professionals at the International Economic Development Council's Annual Conference this week through Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio. The conference will explore new paradigms of economic development, including new tools, new uses, new ventures and new directions.

Keynote speakers from Ohio are Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, J.D., Ed.D., American Electric Power Co., Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Michael G. Morris, Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO and Chairman of the Board James Hagedorn and Crane Group President and CEO Tanny Crane.

The conference includes six "mobile workshops" incorporating tours of central Ohio projects:

1. "Living on top of the Old Margarine Factory and other Dirty Redevelopment Stories," which covers:

• Grandview Yard, a mixed-use development on the site of a former grocery chain headquarters.
• Harrison Park, a former margarine factory converted to single-family homes, lofts and flats.
• The former site of Columbus Coated Fabrics, which is being redeveloped into apartments and condos.
• The Creekside development in Gahanna, home to recreational facilities, public spaces and a mixed-use development.

2. "Rural Focus - Union County," which showcases how agriculture is creating jobs and investment in rural America through tours of:

• Univenture, an Algae research and technology center.
• Springdale Perch Farm.
• Select Sires, an international superior bovine genetics production facility.

3. "Technology and Higher Education," which examines some of the reasons Forbes named Columbus the no.1 Up and Coming Tech City in 2008 through tours of:

• The Ohio Supercomputer Center, established in 1987 to provide supercomputing, research and education resources.
• TechColumbus, which has nurtured 111 emerging technology businesses that have created 665 jobs with an average salary of $65,000.
• Dublin Entrepreneurial Center (DEC) in Dublin's 1,300-acre Innovation Park.

4. The "Rickenbacker," which explores the international cargo airport, multi-modal logistics hub, charter passenger terminal and U.S. Foreign Trade zone on the site of the former Rickenbacker Air Force Base.

5. The "Honda of America," which includes a visit to the facility 25 minutes northwest of Columbus that has evolved from a motorcycle plant employing 64 associates in 1979 to become Ohio's top vehicle manufacturer, producing almost $20 billion in products annually.

6. "Bringing Life Back to Downtown Columbus," which explores Columbus Downtown Development Corporation projects, including:

• The Arena District – a 75-acre mixed-use site on the former location of the Ohio Penitentiary.
• The $44 million Scioto Mile riverfront renovation project.
• The 23-acre River South District project, which is creating an urban neighborhood of lofts, condos and apartments.
• The $2 million urban street revitalization project on historic Gay Street.

These are only a few of the projects that demonstrate how Ohio is proactively redesigning the state's business climate to be the ideal location for the 21st century. In fact, Site Selection magazine has awarded four consecutive Governor's Cups to Ohio for leading the nation in new and expanded capital development projects. Business executives continue investing in Ohio because the state offers a work-life balance unlike anywhere else.

For more information about IEDC visit www.iedconline.org.

Ohio Ranks No. 10 in the Inc. 5000

This week Inc. Magazine released the 2010 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. Ohio ranked No. 10 in the U.S. with 186 Ohio companies featured - such as InsuranceAgents.com, Triplefin, Mission Essential Personnel and Quality Electrodynamics to name a few.

The fact that Ohio continues to be recognized by some of the nation’s leading business publications is evidence that our economic development strategies for creating a healthy business development climate in the state are working. This further proves that Ohio should be on every CEO’s list of location options.

When executives grow their business in Ohio they not only find a nurturing business environment, but are also able to profit from the bottom-line benefits of better work-life balance for their employees. Ohio’s low-cost, low-stress communities and combination of micropolitan and metropolitan cities and short commutes provides executives and employees the resources and time to make any ambition achievable. Ohio truly is the state of perfect balance.

Click here to find out more about Ohio’s business environment and benefits of work-life balance.