Know the criteria for successful site selection

The location needs of entrepreneurs are different from those of established businesses. Most startups and early-stage businesses don’t have the same level of available financing. They don’t have internal laboratories and R&D departments or supply chains. While an established business has the ability to draw from its existing networks to find what it needs, an entrepreneur must find the perfect balance of resources and low costs. All of those needs make selecting the right site—one offering the resources to answer a wide array of entrepreneurs’ challenges—critical. For the entrepreneur, getting it right the first time is imperative.

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

Ohio's Enterprise Appalachia Region offers an ideal start-up environment, providing all the criteria to develop a successful small business. The region offers access to these resources and much more. Click here to learn more about Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia Region.

Start Your Business in Ohio

Starting a business can be difficult, but in Ohio your professional dream is within reach. In Ohio you can build your business and love your life, realizing professional and personal success without sacrificing one for the other.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or current business owner, Ohio provides the perfect location to build a profitable business. Ohio has led the nation in new and expanded businesses for the past four years and continues to be committed to supporting business development and growth. The State of Ohio has redesigned its business climate with a low-cost tax structure, investment in 21st century industries and resources that will make your business more competitive around the world. Ohio also provides an arsenal of incentives, loans, grants and tax credits to encourage business growth. Access to much-needed capital is also available to help efficiently and successfully transition your product or service from R&D to commercialization. Start your business in Ohio and enjoy these key benefits.

• Easy access to profitable markets lowers your costs of doing business.
• A strong supply chain across numerous key industries improves your efficiencies and profits.
• An abundant, skilled labor supply improves productivity, quality and profit.
• Public-private support eliminates obstacles, accelerates start-up and feeds business growth.
• Ohio's perfect balance between professional and personal life attracts and retains the best talent for your company.

Click here to find out more about starting your business in Ohio.

Ideal Environment for Business Startup Success

According to the National Business Incubation Association, business incubators generate up to 20 times more jobs than any other federally funded community infrastructure project – at a fraction of the cost per job.

Nearly 30 years ago, this insight inspired the creation of Ohio University’s Innovation Center. Since then, the first university-based incubator in the state of Ohio and only the 12th in the U.S. has nurtured more than 80 companies and created more than 1,000 jobs in Ohio’s Appalachian Region.

Focused on information technology, biosciences and alternative and sustainable energy, the Center offers a home – complete with offices, conference rooms, shared office equipment and advanced laboratory equipment that includes the only commercial wet labs in Southeast Ohio – where startup businesses in these industries can grow.

The Center’s location in Ohio’s Enterprise Appalachia Region allows resident entrepreneurs to take advantage of an ideal startup environment that provides all of the criteria for business success: access to supply chain and markets, access to business capital and support services, access to knowledge and labor and access to a balanced life.

I recently spoke with Jennifer Simon, director of the Innovation Center. She pointed out that the entrepreneurs in Athens and the surrounding region want to stay. The business-friendly environment, growth opportunities and talented workforce fuel the growth of these small businesses, but the welcoming community and balanced lifestyle make them want to remain in the area.

Click here to read the full Ohio University Innovation Center story.

Best States for Business: Low Taxes Help Entreprenuers Keep Their Profits…in Ohio

Ohio's Enterprise Appalachia offers entrepreneurs one of the lowest tax rates in the nation, according to a new analysis of state tax law.

Did you know that Ohio is one of only two states with no general tax on either corporate profits or personal property used in business?

And...Ohio's personal income tax rates are now 16.8 percent lower than they were just five years ago.

Small businesses pay no corporate income tax, a flat $150 fee on the first $1 million in gross receipts, no tax on out-of-state transactions and no personal property tax on business inventory, machinery or equipment.

Ohio's unique state tax structure encourages small business profitability and wealth creation. Consider these examples:

• Companies with sales between $150,000 and $1 million to Ohio customers pay only a $150 fee, while companies with the same income in surrounding states pay between $2,650 and $8,048 in taxes.
• A company that grows to achieve $5 million in sales, half to clients outside the state, would pay $4,050 in Ohio taxes. In other Midwest states, the same company would pay between $13,425 and $28,676.

With no tangible personal property tax, Ohio encourages entrepreneurs to invest in inventory, machinery, equipment, furniture, fixtures and other assets needed to spur business growth. And, because only business activity that takes place in Ohio is taxed by the state, entrepreneurs have an incentive to serve customers across the country and around the world.

So what are you waiting for? Find your Perfect Balance and keep your profits...in Ohio.

Supply Chain Know-How, in Ohio

Access to commercial networks and markets in Ohio's Enterprise Appalachian Region supports best practices in supply chain management, giving companies a significant edge in profitability, quality and service, according to a recent Inc. magazine white paper.

"Real Best Practices for Supply Chain Optimization," is the third in a series of Inc. white papers discussing ideal selection criteria for business startup – access to supply chain and markets, access to business capital and support services, access to knowledge and labor and access to a balanced life. It offers a prescription for efficiently managing the supply chain – the continuum of materials, information, and finances needed to convert raw materials or resources into a product or service delivered to the final customer.

"Savvy entrepreneurs know that choosing the ideal location to start a business can mean the difference between success and failure," said Ed Burghard, executive director of the Ohio Business Development Coalition. "The Appalachian Ohio Region has become a hub for entrepreneurial enterprise, in part because its location in Ohio's manufacturing heartland provides access both to a strong supply chain and a ready market for products and services."

One company that has thrived as a result of its location in Appalachian is Rocky Brands. CEO Mike Brooks cites the area's hardworking 21st century workforce and location within 600 miles of 60 percent of the U.S. population as factors that created an ideal location for this world leader in rugged outdoor and occupational footwear headquartered in Nelsonville, Ohio.

He says excellent schools and low cost of living make it easy to attract and retain talent, while his employees stay sharp through study in Ohio's first-class higher education system at Hocking College and Ohio University. A strategic location in Enterprise Appalachia supports efficient product distribution through more than 3,000 outlets nationwide.

In addition to business success, Enterprise Appalachia offers the avid outdoorsman a work-life balance he has found nowhere else. Through the airport in nearby Columbus, he takes easy day-trips to meet with customers, often returning home in time for dinner and a walk in the area's pristine woodlands with his wife. He can have it all – professional success and a rewarding personal life – without sacrificing one for the other.

Visit here to learn how Ohio's Enterprise Appalachia delivers the ideal location criteria for business start-ups: access to supply chain and markets, access to capital, access to knowledge and labor and access to a balanced life.