Today, the Office of Advocacy is releasing its annual Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories.  This newly-revampled publication provides a wide variety of small business statistics for each state and U.S. territory.  For instance, it shows the number of businesses by firm size, demographic groups, and industries; in addition, firm-level dynamics are also presented.

Knowing that the state profiles were going to be released this week, I posted a question on Linked In asking how states might better promote entrepreneurial activity and the growth of existing small businesses in light of the economic downturn.  The responses were varied, but could basically be summarized as follows:

• It would be nice to have “a tax credit or a reduction of the capital gains tax or dividends tax associated with investments in (and the proceeds from) startups.”
• Similarly, a state’s business climate matters, and one respondent cited a desire for providing tax incentives for start-ups, simplified filing requirements for starting a business and filing taxes, no or low interest loans for small business capital investments, tax incentives to encourage more small firms to provide health care coverage, and tort reform. 
• “States can encourage foreign collaboration,” especially in high-tech fields.
• “Make loans easy for any business who are boot strapped and have potential.”
• “Government should pay more attention to the social and infrastructural developmental activity, especially those involving construction projects in these times of general apathy to spend.”
• Ensure that a sufficient amount of state contracting dollars flow to small firms.
• Remove or reduce the administrative burdens of obtaining permits, licenses, or registations.
• “Encourage entrepreneurship in the schools.”  And, from another individual, “Don’t forget Junior Achievement. It’s been around a long time too.”
• Along those lines, a business owner in Wyoming raved about the entrepreneurial assistance programs in her state.  “The SBA, the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming SBDC, the Wyoming Business Council, Manufacturing Works, the Marketing Center, and the various Economic Development organizations around the state, the Women’s Business Development Center, and others, have all networked together. If you plug into any one of them, they’ll refer you for your other needs to other organizations. Once you get plugged in, you can move from one to another, depending on what you need.”