More than 12,000 entrepreneurs nationwide participated in this year’s survey. The Thumbtack.com Small Business Friendliness Survey is the largest survey of its kind and is the only survey to obtain data from an extensive, nationwide sample of small business owners themselves to determine the most business-friendly locations.

While there are various "business climate rankings" that rate locations as good or bad for business, there are no others that draw upon considerable data from small business owners themselves. This year our team was able to rate 82 cities and most states across multiple metrics that business owners say are critical to a friendly business environment.

“After a two-month survey of thousands of small business owners nationwide, we have been able to hear directly from small businesses about which cities and states are responding to their needs,” said Jon Lieber, Chief Economist of Thumbtack.com. “Creating a business climate that is welcoming to small, dynamic businesses is more important than ever, and Georgia's friendliness towards small business is helping to make that happen.”

Some of the key findings for Georgia include:

• Georgia earned a grade of A- for its overall friendliness to small business.

• Georgia has been consistent in the ratings, coming in at number ten for overall friendliness both this year and last year.

• Georgia's regulations earned a B, placing the state 16th in the nation for regulatory friendliness.

• Georgia did best for its environmental regulations, earning an A-, and worst for its licensing rules, which earned a C+.

• Georgia could improve its training and networking programs, which play an important factor in determining perceptions of overall friendliness and received a grade of C by the state's small businesses.

• The top rated states overall were Utah, Idaho, Texas, Virginia and Louisiana. The lowest rated were Rhode Island, Illinois, California, Connecticut and New Jersey.

“It is critical to the economic health of every city and state to create an entrepreneur-friendly environment,” said Dane Stangler, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “Policymakers put themselves in the best position to encourage sustainable growth and long-term prosperity by listening to the voices of small business owners themselves.”

The full survey results can be seen here and include full sets of rankings for states and cities going back three years, along with multiple easily searchable quotes from Georgia small businesses.

"It's very difficult because the state licensing board is unorganized, very slow in renewing licenses and requires hands-on continuing education that is very expensive, which is also usually irrelevant to those who have been practicing for long periods of time." - Massage therapist, Marietta