Business Climate

Business Climate

Set up shop in St. Louis and here’s what you’ll find: a large, productive work force with the talents and skills to do just about anything; a lower-than-average cost of doing business (Forbes, 2006) as St. Louis is ranked 27th highest among the largest 200 U.S. cities; fair tax administration and a friendly legislative environment; great access to the rest of the United States — in short, an environment that, according to Expansion Management magazine, puts us among the best metropolitan areas in the country for business opportunity.

The St. Louis, MO-IL MSA supports a large and diverse business community including a strong small business sector.

Diverse St. Louis Business Community
Total Business Locations (1)	82,845
Total Corporations (2)	70,969
Total Business Headquarters (3)	2,667
Women Owned Corporations (4)	7,695
Women Owned Headquarters (3)	151
Minority Owned Corporations (4)	1,879
Minority Owned Headquarters (3)	62
Source: "Selectory" Dun & Bradstreet. Notes: (1) Search on Location Type=Headquarters OR Branches OR Single Locations. (2) Search on Location Type=Headquarters OR Single Locations (HQ or subsidiaries). (3) Headquarters have other locations reporting to them. (4) Search on Location Type=Headquarters OR Single Locations (HQ or subsidiaries) of Women Owned, Minority Owned Corporations Located Anywhere.

The St. Louis region also features a pro-growth business culture that is getting better all the time. One example is the recently passed Quality Jobs Act, which complements the highly successful Illinois EDGE program by providing economic incentives to Missouri companies that create jobs with health benefits and good wages.

Illinois and Missouri also both recently enacted comprehensive reforms in their workers’ compensation systems, and Missouri enacted one of the strongest tort reform laws in the country.

For startups, the resources are terrific. “St. Louis might be the business-incubator capital of the nation,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch observed last year. The region has at least eight incubators where fledgling firms can find advice, nurturing, and inexpensive office and lab space.

Financial resources are growing rapidly. There are now several different venture funds covering plant and life sciences, IT, telecom, and other sectors. In the life sciences, venture capital per worker has surpassed competing regions for several years running, the Council on Competitiveness found.

Small wonder that Expansion Management magazine named the St. Louis area as a “5-Star Business Opportunity Metro” for 2006, ranking the region in the top 20 percent of the nation’s metropolitan areas in legislative influences on the business climate, transportation and logistics infrastructure, quality of life, public education, and other areas important to corporate site selectors.