Creating high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurial enterprises has become a common goal of cities. Metros and states have cut taxes, implemented entrepreneur-friendly business policies, launched their own venture capital efforts, and underwritten incubators and accelerators – all in the hope of creating the next Apples, Facebooks, Googles, and Twitters.
But what really attracts innovative entrepreneurs who create these economy-boosting companies?
The answers: talented workers, and the quality of life that the educated and ambitious have come to expect – not the low-tax, favorable-regulation approach that many state and local governments tout.
The link to the article:At the very bottom of the list were taxes and business-friendly policies, which are, unfortunately, exactly the sorts of things so many states and cities continue to promote as silver bullets. Just 5 percent of the respondents mentioned low taxes as being important, and a measly 2 percent named other business-friendly policies as a factor in their location decisions.
To drive this point home, Endeavor tracked more than 100 of the most common descriptive words that entrepreneurs used to answer the question, “Why did you choose to found your company in the city that you did?” Tax doesn’t make the top 50, falling below "rent," "park," "restaurants," and "schools." In fact, it barely manages to edge out the word "girlfriend." Of the top ten most popular words, "lived," "live," and "living" all make the cut. Talent takes the first slot.
http://tinyurl.com/npxl9ak
The link to the Endeavor report:
http://tinyurl.com/kby6wlh