Reasons Why Tampa Was Cited As One of 10 Best Cities to Start a Business

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Communities, Real Estate

Why did Kiplinger cite Tampa as one of ten best cities to start a business? It’s mainly because of outstanding efforts by the city, local government agencies, local nonprofits, and private-public partnerships to help new business enterprises. And there are others.

Here are reasons that Kiplinger cited as Tampa’s assets in encouraging people to start businesses, including reasons that have been known to people who have invested in Tampa:

Tax Credits

The city of Tampa provides its own tax incentives to new and existing businesses, in addition to those offered together with the state of Florida and the county of Hillsborough, and those provided in partnership with the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. Tampa offers, among others, Economic Development Ad Valorem Tax Exemption to businesses that expand in Tampa and create jobs. Hillsborough County offers wage reimbursement of 50 percent of the wage cost of new jobs for three months for small businesses with ten or less workers and that are hiring new employees.

The state of Florida meanwhile offers the following tax incentive programs:

Rural and urban jobs tax credit
Qualified target industry tax refund
High impact performance incentive
Florida enterprise zone program
Capital investment tax credit
Community contribution tax credit
Brownfield redevelopment bonus

No Personal Income Tax in Florida

The absence of personal income tax in Florida is also an attraction for people planning to start a business or encouraging prospective partners or key employees to come and work in Tampa.

Plenty of Nonprofits helping Tampa businesses

These are just some of many nonprofits helping businesses in the Tampa Bay area:

Tampa Bay Innovation Center. This links entrepreneurs with business mentors and also organizes networking events and conferences.

Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp. This organization has been teaming up with the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City in attracting investors to the area and helping businesses in their expansion efforts. One of their specialties is identification of corporate relocation and expansion opportunities.

Small Business Information Center. This helps women- and minority-owned small enterprises in Hillsborough County. It provides business counseling and workshops and offers resource materials.

Tampa Bay Technology Forum. Organizes educational, advocacy, and networking events

Participation in the Startup America Partnership

Tampa is among top cities participating in this nationwide initiative that has allocated more than $730 million to new business enterprises throughout Florida and six other U.S. states.

Small-Business-Friendly City

The following statistics show that Tampa is a small-business-friendly city: