 "Photo: Mary Kang/ The Daily Texan")
If the The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce copied the McCombs School of Business theme and started printing “Austin Means Business” T-shirts, there wouldn’t be much room for objection.
Austin is the eighth best big city in the nation to launch a small business, according to a study published by CNNMoney.com and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the November edition of Fortune: Small Business.
“Entrepreneurial ventures and small businesses have thrived in Austin, which has a number of angel investment groups that focus on startup businesses,” said Dinah Eng, a columnist who wrote about Austin on behalf of the study. “The state capital, like the rest of Texas, is known for its business-friendly tax structure — no state personal income tax, no corporate income tax — and support for business development, particularly in the technology sector.”
Some of the factors the study considered are population, per-capita income, business tax climate, college-educated workers, small business population and local lenders.
Mike Rollins, president of the Austin chamber, said a culture of innovation and education contributes to the city’s hospitality to small businesses.
“There is [also] a lot of high-education attainment which lends itself to a culture of ideas,” he said. “The general assumption is that well-educated people want to be in control of their economic future. They’re the ones that migrate toward starting a business.”
Rollins said that compared to most other large cities, Austin has relatively few large-scale corporate headquarters, which works to entice people to stay here and develop their own businesses.
Leon Chen, UT alum and co-founder of Tiff’s Treats, said the city’s atmosphere accommodated his business endeavor.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself that Austin was the perfect and probably only place we could have started this business and have had the success we have had,” he said. “I believe that Austin is a very forward-thinking city whose people are not afraid to be the first to try something new.”
Chen said the progressive people attracted to Austin by the University are a major factor in the success of local small businesses.
“[Tiffany Taylor, co-founder] and I owe every bit of success to the University, as they were our first corporate client back in 1999, taking a chance on two sophomores and ordering big orders from us.” Chen said. “Without the University’s resources and support, we probably would not have been able to succeed as easily.”
The study cited transportation within the city — and between Austin and other cities — as the primary drawbacks. Rollins said he believes air travel choices will increase as the population grows, but issues of traffic congestion have to be addressed immediately.
“Our situation is a result of people not looking ahead 20 years ago,” he said. “Hopefully, the community leaders of today will make the hard decisions that they won’t necessarily see the results of right away.”
Chen said he believes that some state and federal legislation hinders the growth of small businesses, but he wouldn’t trade the city for anything.
“No matter what roadblocks or difficulties we endured while growing, we always knew we were on the right track because of the enormous amount of support from people,” Chen said. “As far as a place to launch a new business, you can’t beat the atmosphere and support of Austin.”
