In August (2015), we shared the top 10 small business states and cities according to a survey of 18,000 business owners who list their services on Thumbtack.com, a personal services “on-demand” marketplace. For Veteran’s Day, Thumbtack analyzed a sub-set of the survey participants who are military veterans to develop this list.


In a survey of 1,794 U.S. military veterans who own small businesses, the following U.S. cities ranked as America’s 10 friendliest cities for small business. In the survey conducted by Thumbtack.com, the self-employed veterans were ask to rank the friendliness of their local state and city government policies toward small business.

1 | Dallas
2 | Austin
3 | Fort Worth
4 | Virginia Beach, Virginia
5 | Atlanta
6 | San Antonio
7 | Houston
8 | Washington, DC
9 | Phoenix
10 | Raleigh

Thumbtack surveyed the business owners using a dozen metrics, including tax regulations, ease of hiring, and licensing regulations.

“Veterans not only make great employees, they make great business leaders as well,” said Jon Lieber, chief economist of Thumbtack. “Our survey shows that when it comes to policies that support small businesses, veterans want to see high-quality business training programs and licensing rules that don’t require them to jump through unnecessary hoops to get their businesses off the ground.”

Related Articles