The World's Best Places For Small Businesses
Each year the World Bank compiles a report that assesses the world’s friendliest business climates for small companies. The top three companies on this year’s list, Singapore, New Zealand and the US have been there four years in a row. The real shocker this year was that several previously lagging nations moved up on the list, mostly because of business-friendly reforms. This year’s most improved nation is Azerbaijan, which moved up 64 spots to a overall ranking of 33rd because it reduced the time required to start a new business from 122 to 16 days, reforming its civil code and creating an online tax filing system.
Singapore has habitually been number one on the list because of its low import and export costs, strong government-imposed legal protections for investors and lopsided, employer-friendly labor regulations. The US placed high on the list because its labor laws are among the least rigid in the world and because business can be started quickly with a minimum amount of “red tape”.
For those of you who may be interested the top ten list looks like this:
- Singapore
- New Zealand
- United States
- Hong Kong
- Denmark
- The United Kingdom
- Ireland
- Canada
- Australia
- Norway
To see the rest of the list and find out more about starting a small business in your own click here
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (why not start one?)
