Entrepreneurship in Charlotte

I was sitting in my office in Charlotte the other day, and I came across an article that I couldn’t ignore. I’m not even really sure how I ended up on the website, but it was a great article, and I was encouraged after reading it.  I tweeted the article but I wanted to write a quick post about it because it’s got some great info.

If you remember from a previous blog post, I discussed Charlotte as a city for entrepreneurs. Like I said in the post, I think Charlotte is a great city to start a business.  I’m a serial entrepreneur and I own a business in Charlotte, so whenever I see something on the topic I stop and read it.

The article from the fiscal times ranked the 10 Best Places to Start a Small Business.   Even though it was from a little while back, it made some great points.  Charlotte has had a lot of population growth, and it has a great workforce of talent; two things that go a long way when you’re starting a business.  It also mentioned low taxes, a variety of grants & funds, and that Charlotte was among the nation’s lowest for mandatory expenses like unemployment & workers’ comp.   All of these are still true today if you’re thinking of a place to start a business, and the weather doesn’t hurt either.

What I particularly liked about the article was that it mentioned an organization called BIG (Business Innovation Growth).  I checked out the Events & Programs page and there were two really cool events listed. The big one was the Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC) coming up in March. If you are interested in entrepreneurship, tech, and business in general, it’s worth checking out. There are going to be some great entrepreneurs guest speaking, and it may be an opportunity unlike another, where you’ll have the opportunity to network.

It’s great to live in a city that is holding a conference’s like this one. I am going to look into attending it. It’s not cheap, but it should be an exciting event, and at the very least its two days in the Ritz Carlton.