Utah is an A+ state to start a business
Starting up a business has never been an easy task. City regulations and providing services and products people will pay for make things difficult for entrepreneurs.
However, Utah was given an A+ grade for small businesses in 2014, according to an annual survey by Thumbtack, a customer-matching website, and the Kauffman Foundation, a think-tank.
Questions are asked of small businesses across the U.S. about hiring, regulations, zoning, licences, health insurance and training, according to an article by The Economist, and Utah was tied for the highest grade with Idaho, Texas and Virginia.
Studying the world of entrepreneurship and starting up businesses is nothing new to many Utah State University students, many of which have successful small businesses in Logan and across the state of Utah.
For Andrew Davis, who previously planned to major in graphic design at USU, it was about growing roots in Utah and starting his business in Logan, since that’s where he was when the time was right.
Davis started his creative agency SmallDot Design in 2011 to help businesses with graphic design, web design, web hosting, marketing, social media and digital advertisement designs, and found that it wasn’t always simple to run a business in a small town.
“It was difficult because I would never get anyone local because Logan’s job economy isn’t the greatest,” Davis said. “But my company works remotely so it wasn’t limiting. I could charge what I needed for service to people who had a higher cost of living compared to Logan.”
Davis started doing work and projects for his business after finishing homework in his dorm room. He would have to ask his roommate to be quieter when he took client calls. He moved to the Provo area one year ago, where he continues to work with local and remote clients.
Registering the business turned out to be one of the easiest parts, with it being both cheap and convenient. This has been the experience of many small business owner students, with registering their business being simple and quick.
For Danny Noall, registering his LLC, Infuze Hydration, could be done in the same week that he and his business partners prepared for an adventure gear expo, ordered t-shirts and built a prototype of their product. Overall, “it was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” said Noall, who finished in the entrepreneur MBA program at USU last year.
Infuze Hydration has developed a water flavoring system that can be used on a hose for camelbacks used by hikers, hunters and athletes.
After going to expos and sharing the invention with outdoorsman who are the most likely to use it, favorable feedback hasn’t stopped coming in for the product.
“It’s fun to see the support from the community, it’s fun to be up on campus, and it’s fun to see all of the interactions with the people in the community and in the outdoor industry,” Noall said.
Noall and his partners will have the hydration flavor systems ready for sell by January, both in retail and online at infuzehydration.com, and have already had several people pre-order.
The Internet and social media have changed the lives of entrepreneurs, making the start-up of businesses and spreading the word about them more quickly and easily, no matter where in the country a business may be started.
Rental On Me is a business that relies entirely on the Internet and people’s web connection, so that people can know to check on the website and see what products they can rent daily or weekly from people all over the state.
Spencer Finch is a senior majoring in marketing at USU, and started his business last year to make it easier for people to find and rent out gear they may need for outdoor adventures, date nights or events.
“Especially as students, you don’t want to buy everything, but you want to do everything,” Finch said of why Rental On Me is something particularly successful among students. Paddle boards, projectors, kayak, calculators, prom dresses and photography services are just a few of the listings that can be found on the site.
Overall, the business has been growing all summer and things are good.
“Utah is an awesome place for businesses,” Finch said.
Because the business is technically run out of his home, registering in Utah and starting up wasn’t a problem, and the business and its website have grown rapidly since its launch in March.
“There are so many business opportunities in Utah with the entrepreneur movement that we always come across interesting people and opportunities,” Davis said of SmallDot. “College towns like Logan are excellent places to test out a new business because of the diversity created by the students.”
—mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu