Wyoming is a great state for women to start a business due to economic incentives, but not so great when it comes to female-friendly business environments.
That's according to a new report by FitSmallBusiness.com. The private company works to provide better information for small businesses. This year when it analyzed all 50 states, Wyoming ranked 16th.
If the criteria only included start-up climate, opportunity, and economic and financial health, Wyoming could be the best state for women entrepreneurs. But this year, the private company not only looked at the economic incentives, but also female-friendly business environments.
Michael De Medeiros, a special projects editor at FitSmallBusiness, said Wyoming didn't do so well there.
"Women's health and safety, it's a 30. In women's business opportunity, it's a 45. So what we're finding here is that it's a great place to start a business, obviously, but it probably has some work to do with specific reference to those very female-oriented metrics," said Medeiros.
Some of those metrics included share of women-owned businesses, "economic clout", rates of unemployment and the amount of venture-capital dollars going to female entrepreneurs
He said he hopes this information can be information hub for women who want to start a business and want to know the challenges and benefits of a state.
"But I think each individual female entrepreneur has to look at those other metrics and decide whether they outweigh the general startup climate and economic and financial health markers, which are abundantly important to any entrepreneur," he said.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
