I’m thinkin’ of sellin’ the
shop to Supercuts, Goob.
|
The governor governor’s
office is hosting a small-business forum that begins early
in the a.m. in Bremerton. I’ll be there and will send a note or two
on it, as well as write a story.
In July 2007 Forbes Magazine ranked Washington as the fifth-best state to do business.
You use its products every day–when you take a cross-country flight on a Boeing jet, when you sip your morning Starbucks coffee, when you order the latest Harry Potter book from Amazon.com and when you use the Microsoft operating system on your PC. Washington state is home to these companies and more, befitting the state’s tagline, “Innovation is in our nature.”
The governor celebrated:
“Our top five ranking in the Forbes survey confirms that Washington is moving in the right direction and that our state is a great place to do business, work and raise a family,” said Governor Chris Gregoire.
Others were critical, though my quick research netted not the results I sought. There was the argument that Washington is, indeed, good for a certain kind of business, the big kind. Boeing. Microsoft. Starbucks. If you’re Cafe Fraiche or some other small biz, not so good. We’ll see where the discussion goes in Bremerton.
The discussion is called “Washington Is Open for Business.”
Most of the well known businesses in Washington started here simply because that was where the principle owners lived when they founded their business.
Interesting that it wasn’t mentioned that Boeing moved their headquarters out of the state and Nordstoms moved a major part to Colorado to get away from Washington’s department of revenue.
All the ones cited were here long before Gov. Gregoire and troupe took over making her claim of progress a little hollow.
To have a chance in Kitsap, you better be green, not employ part-timers, and be prepared to spend thousands on permits, studies and cajoling the anti-business politicians. Not needing easy access to the the I-5 corridor is also a pre-requisite.