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Which US States are e-Commerce Friendly?
pHaze asks: "I am about to take a long drive across the USA with my girlfriend to try and find a state to live in. We are both professional geeks and plan to settle and start a business. We were wondering if slashdotters could offer some advice on which state is the best to start an e-commerce business in. Which has the most e-commerce friendly/unfriendly laws (taxation, copyright, spam, privacy), the highest availability of broadband (and bandwidth in general) and is the most cost effective for a business."
I've always liked Ohio.
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
you're asking about spam laws? I don't know what laws those yankees have but I assure you, I'll have Pitr at you once I get single spam from ya
New Jersey
Watch out for the mid-west, they aren't very friendly. In fact, they harbour terrorists. What? They don't? Well, they have illegal weapons of mass destruction. What? They don't? Well, ok, fair enough, but they ARE nasty people, with all kinds of humanitarian issues. Let's go kick their ass.
Sealand is very friendly to e-commerce, I hear.
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
After all according to one of our license plate types, we are 'The .com state'
But seriously look into it, a few years back the Gov. put in some e-commerce insentives to encourage internet buisness to come to VA. Three places you can go that are connected, NoVa (up by DC), Richmond (The capital), and Hampton Roads.
Each has thier ups and downs.
I don't know about how you will rate your list there. One thought is to find a nice place to live and register the company in another state that has laws in your favor (and host the server from there as well).
In this day and age of drop shipping, UPS, FedEx, faxes and the like, maybe the thing(s) that you should be looking for are:
Schools, Libraries, Parks, Cultural Events, transportation, proximity to family, jobs (what if your company goes out of business?), friends, and so forth.
Good luck.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Hire me.
:)
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Virginia is the "birthplace of the internet" and North Carolina has Research Triangle Park (RTP). In and around RTP you will find a low cost of living, high availability of broadband providers, and no lack of hard working undergrads or recent graduates from the UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State Universities as well as many tech oriented vocational schools.
Check out the Backbone Map. Quite a bit of bandwidth goes through there. Three major metropolitan centers. Texas is like California, but without the insane high cost of living. Texas has no state income tax.
A tool for finding the best place to live is online at BestPlaces.Net.
There are two versions of the tool: short (15 categories) and long (40 categories).
The tool has you rate different attributes in terms of "importance to you" and then provides a ranked list of places to live that meet your preferences.
Pretty much pick the type of weather and culture you want and setup shop. I don't really know much about e-com laws and such - but they can't be that different... The only thing that I think you will run into is state sales tax - and they are ALL trying to get people to pay sales tax on internet purchased items anyway - sooner or later we will have to pay no matter where you live.
Good luck in whatever you do,
Duke
FreeBSD: Nothing runs like a daemon with a pitch fork.
hm. There are so many factors to consider, and your question doesn't offer many details.
1. A cheap one - If you're starting a business from scratch, you probably want to conserve cash. As such, you may need to look for a cheap place to live...many states have them, but you can do your own homework to see what the cost of living is. The cheaper the area, the cheaper your legal/incidental expenses may be. However, this may affect your access to:
2. Broadband - I don't think it matters what state you're in, you need to either be withing range (3 miles) of a CO or a cable ISP. You could be in the 'most wired state' and still be outside of range. Unless you go with satellite access, in which case, I think you need an extra phone line for uploads. Then you could probably work anywhere, except on really cloudy days.
3. What kind of business? Are you going to be pounding the pavement looking for clients? In which case, you'd better be near lots of them, possibly offsetting point 1.
4. I hear maryland is very business-friendly. You don't have to live there to register your business, and I think they make it quite easy to do via the web. If I'm not mistaken, they're somewhat lenient when it comes to business taxes, though you can find the other benefits by asking google.
5. If this is really going to be a 'virtual business' then it shouldn't matter. Find somewhere where you like the weather or the nightlife or the mountains or the beach. In the long run, whether your (online) business succeeds or fails doesn't hinge on where it sits, it's on what you do with it. Though you may want to be within 50 miles of a decent job market in case one (or both) of you needs to get a real job...
It has a small but growing tech presence.
It has no state sales tax (ie, no internet sales tax).
The area is well-covered broadband-wise. Manchester airport is easy to get to and non-congested (unlike Boston's Logan), and within 30 minutes of just about any spot in the area.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Stay away from Kansas.
Nebraska (Lincoln in particular) might be what you're looking for.
I live right near RTP and love it. I'm in a small suburb with good surroundings. You really get the bigger city advantages with the small town appeal. Plus, it's a very tech savvy area. Raleigh was just shown to be the city with the highest rate of residential broadband acceptance in the country.
Virginia has passed UCITA. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is an exercise for the reader.
Will I retire or break 10K?
For no other reason than their motto: Live free or die.
Alternatively, Vermont, where they have no concealed weapons permits. Instead, everyone has the implicit right to carry.
Lots of fat pipes here and cost of living is great.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Taxes are astronomical; the population is inbred, mostly illiterate, extremely lazy and very hostile towards technology; the mountains are ugly; the skiing sucks (ditto the snowmobiling, snowshoeing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, hang gliding, water skiing, etc. They all suck. Bad. Did I mention they suck? I'm really going to hate snowboarding tomorrow after the load of fresh powder we're supposed to get tonight); DSL and cable modems are unheard of (we just got 56kbps!); the Mormons will steal your wife and force her into a polygamous marriage with some bearded, pot-bellied 90 year-old who already has a harem of 25, every one of them barefoot and pregnant; there is *no* alcohol anywhere in the state, so don't even think of getting a drink; the legislature recently had a special session so they could pass a law legalizing marriages between first cousins... you get the idea -- NOT a place you want to try to start a business, build a home or raise a family. Especially not build a home. Damned housing prices going through the roof... can't hardly even find a five-acre building lot anymore.
Besides, we've got enough problems with all of the refugees from California flooding our lovely^H^H^H^H^H^H horrible state... the LAST thing we want is more people.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
You can't be serious. The place is a dumpster. A hell on earth filled with ignorant rubes (Klan members, the lot) who can't drive (55 in a 65 zone in the far left lane, EACH AND EVERY TIME).
Have you seen their latest slogan??? "Birthplace of Aviation" What the hell is this? The Wright brothers were born there and this is Ohio's greatest claim to fame. THE PLANE NEVER FLEW IN OHIO!! Kitty Hawk, NC!!!
Every time I am forced to pass through Ohio I have to dodge the over-zealous cops trying to enforce the ridiciously slow speed limits on the asinine loops of expressway. In the mean time, I can't get up to speed because of the buffoons getting on the expressway and cutting across two lanes to get in the left "in case a truck is coming behind [them] quickly!" An actual quote from an Ohio native.
Seceed Michigan: It's time to free ourselves of the tyranny of our terrible neighbors: OH, IN & WI.
We were wondering if slashdotters could offer some advice on which state is the best to start an e-commerce business in.
It depends what you mean by "in". Delaware is probably the most company-friendly state. There are plenty of companies that are physically headquartered in Manhattan but legally based in Delaware, physically existing there only as one of hundreds of brass plaques on the front of lawyer's offices.
The beauty of the internet is that when location becomes irrelevant to where you do business, it also becomes the most important thing - because now you can choose anywhere. So, head for somwhere that the taxes are low and the people are friendly, like New Hampshire, or where there's a nascent nigh-tech hub, like out in Western Mass.
The trouble with this question is you're asking small business owners/employees, who've probably only been involved in one state. It is hard to be objective with such limited experience.
I suggest looking first at where you want to live in terms of climate, urban / rural, proximity to family,(it ay not be important now, but might be in a few years when you have kids). I'msure you probably have someother "intangibles", preferences as to where you live that are subjective (I personally swore I would never live in Ohio).
Anyway, once you narrow the list, then start investigating the business climate. I have to believe that for small businesses the tax advantages of one state over another are mimimal. since there are so many other factors involved in starting a business, since the tax laws will depend on the organization structure of the business (LLC, SubChapter S, Sole proprietor, partnership, etc)
That said,I like Michigan, I have operated a home based Internet businesses for 5 years, and spent time in Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Traverse City and Clinton twp.
My family's primary concern was staying close to extended family. Pretty much everywhere we've been has had broadband.
I have a client who moved his on-line sales operation to Michigan's Upper Pennisula, and he seems to like it.
My advise is: this is a big decision, and involves a lot of variables, you need to look at everything, and make the choice based on the variables that are most important to your long term happiness.
-ms2k
By "e-commerce friendly", do you mean tolerant of spam and reselling customer information or the opposite? Normally I'd assume the latter (since that what it means) but from your tone and where you've chosen to ask, I wonder if you mean "customer friendly"instead.
It makes a difference! ;-)
PS: Stay away from Massachusetts, unless you're eager for the combination of Swedish taxes and Saudi liquor laws. And like someone else said, avoid Utah like the plague. You don't want any part of beautiful scenery, phenomenal outdoor sports and clean, safe courteous cities. At least not until I get myself back there first.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
One legislator there wanted to register NON gun owners.
There is no state income tax for individuals or businesses, and in some counties, the income tax is as low as 5%. There is no special tax on any businesses except coal, oil, & gas. The Wyoming SBIR program also provides funding to technology minded small businesses. www.state.wy.us
Better yet in these interesting times, Wyoming is notorious for not following federal laws and regulations. Hating the federal government there is practically a religion.
Taco is prejudiced against Delaware
Seriously, though, you can get a colacated server *anywhere*. Make sure you have good shipping access too.
You'll save money by not having to collect one. Even better if you can find one that doesn't have a reciprocal agreement with another state.
Added bonus:
When your daughter gets raped, the people will blame it on her style of dress!
If you have a gay son, you can expect death threats.
Fall in love with a person from an inferiour, non-White race? Get punished for being a race traitor.
Come on people, quality of life is more then just bandwidth and low taxes. Quality of culture has something to do with it.
Although Austin is pretty nice in some ways.
The information at bestplaces.net is a little old. At the bottom of every page, it says "modified 3/29/01".
Alot of things have changed in the last 2 years. Things may yet return to their 3/2001 levels, but be weary of any information that is not current.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Register the company in Delaware though, better taxes.
WA - no income tax, 8% sales tax
OR - income tax, no sales tax
Stay away from California. We are all full over here. It's really expensive to live here and, contrary to what people will tell you, it does rain here.
Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
Has everything you want, plus (1) easy to bribe officials, (2) cheap marijuana, and (3) plenty of friendly Mexicans.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Small Business Survival Committee's seventh annual Small Business Survival Index 2002: Ranking the Policy Environment for Entrepreneurship Across the Nation.
business laws are not all you need to look into...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Let me start off by saying that is a sign of a very bad economy that so many of the responses say "don't bother with region X . . ." We are really and truly fucked economically, and we all better learn to sell dumpster-dived trash on ebay.
With that cheerful intro, I'll say that the specific circumstances you find matter more than the general state or region. Sure, one state may have a sales tax 2% higer than another, but a sweet deal on rental space will more than make up the difference. In fact, if you find living space a walkable distance from a small, cheap office just saving on gas may make more difference. You have to have an idea of your cash resources and burn rate and look for a place to maximize them.
I would just search for cities where the culture felt right to you. Culture varies as much within a region as it does from region to region. A small college town in the south may be more intellectual and tolerant than South Boston, Massachusetts. (Ok, maybe Nazi Germany was more tolerant than S.B., but you get my point.)
When you arrive in an area and think "I might be able to live here a couple of years" start looking for that specific sweet deal on space and infrastructure that will stretch your budget out another year. The trailer park with OC3 available, for example.
And then to actually give you some real advice rather than just "look for a good place son", if it were me I'd focus on a cheap, low class, dangerous part of Houston, Dallas, Austin, or San Antonio, which was walking distance from a cheap-ass industrial park and served by Grande Communications for cable/telephone. ( I'd definitely use Grande for personal telephone, but perhaps not for running a business broadband. Their availability means you can bargin more with the other providers.)
And how is $100/(mb*mo) dirt cheap when most of the country pays less than half of that for unlimited cable/dsl at 1.5mb/s
However, don't count the Old Dominion out totally. There are other parts of the state that are beautiful, have a lower population density, *and* are reasonably priced; these include the Shenandoah valley and the Roanoke valley.
If you want to get hardcore rural, you might consider extreme southwestern Virginia...and I do mean hardcore (supermaximum security prisons, double-wide trailers, and no 7-11's in sight for miles). Unfortunately, these areas do have very few high-speed Internet options, if this is one of your criteria.
Well, Blacksburg, home of VA Tech, lives up to all those criteria, except that bandwidth *is* readily available. It doesn't quite live up to the "most wired town in America" hype that came with the Blacksburg Electronic Village project in the mid-90s, but depending on what you're doing it may be an ideal place for an internet startup. Plenty of other have found it to be so. There are a bunch here already.
The electronic village does exist to an extent -- a bunch of apartment and office buildings are wired for ethernet, provided by VA Tech. It's very low cost -- you get the equivalent of a T1 for about the same as a home cable/DSL account. Supposedly, you can rent an office with ethernet for a few hundred a month. If you're outside this network you're pretty much stuck with Adelphia cable, which really isn't too bad, or pey the usual prices for a T1. There's supposedly a DSL provider in town, but I doubt they're doing much. For more specific information, I recommend contacting the bev.net directly, and ask them which buildings are wired, what's really available, snd how much it's going for.
There are plenty of smart people around to work for/with you, VA Tech being a top CS school. However, most businesses are VA Tech affiliated in some way. They're feeding off the research teat, which isn't the same as the truly entrepreneurial environment you have in CA, for example. A telling sign of this is that with all the geek power and high salary largesse in this town, there's still no public internet cafe, and I have yet to find any open wireless.
Cost of living is very low -- it's higher than surrounding areas like Roanoke, but still lower than North Carolina, and probably half of what the DC area costs. Coming from CA you'd feel like a millionaire. You can rent a 2BR apartment for $4-600/month, buy a decent condo or a little old house for under $100k, and buy a really nice house for under $200k. If you want to go a little out of town, there are incredible country properties for about 50x less than, say, Marin County. You can't go wrong buying here -- everything is going up, fast. True, it would have been better to be here five years ago, but you still can't go wrong. The bottom line is that this is an excellent place to invest effort in building a business, a career, a life, and family.
The surrounding country is incredible. Outdoor magazines have several times rated Blacksburg the best town in America for outdoor enthusiasts.
The only real pain in about living here is lack of a major airport. You can fly from Roanoke, a half hour away, but it's off the beaten path and therefore expensive. I usually go to Greensboro or Charlotte, 2.5 and 3 hours away, respectively. Charlotte is a great city, where you can recharge your cultural batteries too. BTW, DC is about 4 hours in the other direction.
Don't forget Blacksburg's greatest asset of all -- Slashdot's darling, Congressman Rick Boucher!
I don't know if this is still true, but in Vermont you weren't required to have auto insurance as long as you had a clean driving record. I guess that was proof enough that you didn't need it, and therefore shouldn't be required to have it!
Delaware has always been very, um, freewheeling when it comes to business regulation, so over the years it has gotten the reputation as a haven for sleazy operators. For many people, a Delaware incorporation is a red flag. "Oh, I see, a Delaware corporation. Well, it figures..."
I don't think I'd want a Delaware address for my online business.
don't forget dealing with the fucking crazy drivers who come from all over the world to visit Mickey Mouse and his buddies. every region has a certain driving style.....Orlando has it all, including hot humid summers with lightning capitol Tampa Bay a short drive away and lots of bugs and other crap.
did my time at Naval Training Base Nuke School there . the only cool thing being so close to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Watching a shuttle take off after dark is THE coolest thing! especially when the sunset is dark red and there are some clouds. you can see the thing light up the whole sky. awesome! as for the rest of the time, you heard my spiel.
I'm good with numbers -
Avoid Maryland! It is a UCITA state!
:)
http://www.acm.org/usacm/IP/ucita.states.htm
Virginia is also a UCITA state.
UCITA is bad news for anyone remotely connected to the software industry, if you haven't already heard.
California is great but it has high taxes and its legal climate is anti-business, not to mention the huge cost of living. I currently live in San Jose, and if worse comes to worst, I will move to probably Nevada, Arizona, or New Mexico. I'd prefer Vermont, for many things including getting to vote for Senator Leahy, but my partner hates the snow
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
this guys post at http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=54631&cid= 5354453 has the best info, I just read the pdf he links to, gives ya a lot of the info you want. I will also heartily recommend a book by Joel Skousen called "Strategic Relocation", it's a detailed analysis of all of the US covering just a ton of different features.
Stay the hell out of Northeastern PA.
:p
;)
About the highest tech we have here are horse-drawn buggies that pull a giant abacus.
The major hotspots in PA, I'd say, are Pittsburg and Philadelphia. (And King of Prussia if you want to get anal.) Plenty of resources (pipes, people) in 'them thar parts'. Decent amount of employers, too, if a business goes down the hole and you don't wish to work in McDonald's.
Frankly, I'd imagine similar situations exist in most other states - you have tech centers, and then you have the rest of the state. The problem in PA is that 'the rest of the state' is the majority of the state.
Anyway, the parent is right about taxes. Sooner or later, commerce conducted over the Internet (I do loathe the idea of attaching the prefix 'e-' on everything..) will be taxed. Everywhere.
Pick a city or state which is all White. You don't want to live around
niggers, wetbacks, or moose limbs. It is a joy to escape the filth.
Anchorage Alaska. Pop ~250,000.Lots of bandwidth. moderate cost of living. No state sales tax. Coolness factor. And if you like the outdoors...
Why not Alaska? Virtually no taxes and guess what if you live there for long enough to be a resident the State pays YOU like $500 a year from oil sharing rights. What could be better than that?