With almost weekly announcements of a new business coming to the state, it’s no surprise that Georgia is consistently ranked as one of the best states for business. WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently ranked Georgia as the sixth-best state to start a business in 2023.
WalletHub ranked states in various categories and Georgia ranked in the top 10 in three of them – eighth in growth in number of small businesses, and 10th in cost of living and the average length of work week.
The biggest drawback for the state was the availability of resources, where Georgia ranked 26th. Much of that seems to be related to the amount of financing and venture capital available to Georgian businesses.
Much of Georgia’s recent growth in new businesses has revolved around the electric vehicle industry, with Rivian building a manufacturing plant near Social Circle and Hyundai planning a manufacturing plant near Savannah. In Augusta, Aurubis is building a large metal recycling plant that will produce components for batteries for electric vehicles.
Businesses related to electric vehicles could continue to see growth, according to Jae Hyeung Kang, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at Oakland University.
“According to the United States Census Bureau, the top 5 states in numeric growth (2021 to 2022) are Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona,” he said. “Although there might be various entrepreneurial opportunities in different industries and states, I think that the automotive industry will continue to make a big transformation from the internal combustion engine to electric cars. I expect that high-tech startups advancing in the automotive industry are likely to experience entrepreneurial growth.”
