The Venture Edge

With only a few weeks until a very important mid-term election, Peter and I decided to focus our next several posts on critical political and regulatory issues impacting entrepreneurs and small businesses for the foreseeable future. We’re not going to take political sides but rather deal with the truth—just the facts, folks. Let me start by saying that uncertainty is clearly the word of the day and the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk to around the country are all singing the same tune—no major commitments until we know where things are going. 

I'm posting this blog from beautiful Sioux Falls, South Dakota where, with my N2TEC Institute co-founder Tim Stearns,  I'm helping 9 entrepreneurial teams launch their new technology businesses. I can hear the response from all of you--South Dakota, do people actually live there?  Well, yes they do and unlike most of the rest of you, they have stubbornly refused to participate in the recession.  In fact, South Dakota was recently named in "the most entrepreneur friendly state in the Small Business Survival Index put out by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (California ranked 49 and New York 48 - so much for the notion that nothing happens in flyover country).  This organization ranks the policy environment of all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.