Website ranks Hawaii fifth worst among states for starting a business

Hawaii’s remote location makes it one of the hardest places in the nation to start a business.

The state was ranked the fifth worst, according to a study released Wednesday by Washington, D.C.-based WalletHub.

New Jersey was the worst while North Dakota was the best.

The personal finance website ranked states on their business environment, access to resources for small businesses and the cost to run a business. WalletHub created the list by comparing states across 20 subcategories such as cost of living and their variety of businesses.

“Lucky we live Hawaii — both a blessing and a challenge,” said Jane Sawyer, district director for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Hawaii District Office, noting Hawaii’s remote location is one of the major disadvantages for small businesses in the state. “We are so remote that in some of those measures we may not register. It can be a challenge but it also can be considered an advantage if we’re looking more globally instead of at the nation.”

Hawaii was 43rd out of 50 states in business costs — the category included office-space affordability, the median annual income of the city, and cost of living.

Sawyer said the lack of land, high cost of goods and higher labor costs make it hard for the state to compete.

“It’s going to be hard for us to move up a chart that measures a lot of those things,” she said.

Hawaii also fell to the lower ranks in the access-to-resources category, coming in 34th out of 50 states. Indicators within that category included total annual value of small-business loans versus total number of small businesses, venture investment amount per capita, and the percentage of the population aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Hawaii ranked 32nd in business environment out of 50 states. The category included areas such as the average growth in the number of small businesses in the state, the average growth of business revenue, the five-year business survival rate, and the variety of services offered by startup businesses.

Sawyer said Hawaii’s remote location where tourism and military have dominated the economy are a major contributing factor in the state’s low ranking in industry diversity.

“The local portfolio of businesses reflect a lot of tourism, hospitality and retail as would be expected given our location and the natural resources that we can offer,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the islands’ location also leaves room for opportunity internationally. SBA has attracted off-island lenders to the Hawaii market through a program called LINC, in which small businesses can describe their financing needs. The digital matchmaking online portal has led to more than half of SBA’s lenders being off- island banks. LINC can be accessed at sba.gov/tools/linc.