Top 10 is Oklahoma’s new target for most measures these days, but it’s already there on one list.
Oklahoma is WalletHub’s fifth-best state to start a business in, behind Texas, Utah, Georgia and North Dakota. For some measures, the state did even better.
"It actually was No. 1 just for business costs, which comes down to cheap office space, pretty friendly tax and corporate tax incentives, and a pretty low cost of living," said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.
The review also puts Oklahoma eighth in business environment measures like average revenue growth.
The state performs worst — ranking 36th — on measures of business resource access, including financing availability and investment amounts.
"Finally, just a high share of college-educated workforce. A lot of times, if people are getting educated in state, we might see them losing them to jobs out of state," Gonzalez said.
There's also room for improvement when it comes to moving beyond energy-related startups.
"Oklahoma’s more middle-of-the-pack when it comes to industry variety. So, I think that it’s certainly stepped it up and still has a little bit more ways to go just in terms of what businesses are being started within the state," Gonzalez said.
Oklahoma’s ranks for venture capital investment was also on the low end.
