Business

Despite the events of the past year, 2021 is an ideal time to start a business, as the pandemic has caused people to flock to the online sphere. A study by The Pew Research Center reveals that 53% of Americans find the internet to be essential for them during the pandemic, while 34% find it “important, but not essential.” This statistic is proof that now is the time to build a company, as the increased internet traffic makes it easier to promote and advertise one’s goods or services.

Though current events make it a good idea to start a business venture, beginning entrepreneurs still need to put a lot of thought into how they want to build up their company. One of the most important things to consider, for instance, is where you’ll be basing your business. If you need some guidance in that department, read on, because we’ll be listing five of the best states to open a business in 2021.

California

Though California is notorious for having among the highest taxes in the country, it’s still a great place to start a company, be it a corporation or an LLC. For one, it’s filled with college towns where you’ll find plenty of talented people to hire. Plus, it’s a place where almost every type of business has an existing market, from restaurant businesses to entertainment companies. If you’re looking to start a technology business, then Silicon Valley is the place to be. There are tons of companies to learn from and experts to build a network with.

Texas

Texas has the country’s second-largest economy (next to California) and is the fourth highest in terms of the increase in small businesses, making it startup-friendly. The state also borders Mexico, giving business owners the option to hire bilingual staff. Finally, office rental fees and energy bills are considerably cheaper here than in the rest of the country, so fledgling businesses will have more resources to devote to growth.

Delaware

Delaware is an ideal state to open a business, given that it has no sales taxes. This applies whether the company is physically based in Delaware or outside. Plus, there are no corporate income taxes on goods or services. But what sets this state apart from the rest is its Chancery Court, a court dedicated to business entity cases. This makes it easier to enlist legal help and speeds up business-related court proceedings.

Florida

Next is Florida — a state that continually ranks among the most entrepreneur-friendly states in the country. And there’s a good reason for this. Entrepreneurs looking to start an LLC in the Florida have plenty to look forward to, such as a large and diverse pool of talent, excellent state infrastructure, and a rebounding economy. Key to the success of many Florida-based entrepreneurs is the business-friendly tax climate, too, as personal income is not taxed on the state level. This is especially beneficial for small entrepreneurs running LLCs or sole proprietorships. To add to that, Florida draws thousands of tourists yearly, providing more opportunities for you to make sales.

Nevada

Lastly, there’s Nevada, one of the most tax-friendly states in the country. It has no business income tax, franchise tax, gift tax, or personal income tax. This is because most of Nevada’s tax revenue comes from the casino and hospitality industries. This gives business owners the opportunity to devote most of their income to growing their company.

Those were five of the best states to start a business in 2021. Each one is beneficial to entrepreneurs in different ways, so make sure to do more research before making your decision. If you want to learn more, check out our List of the Most Tax-Friendly States article. It’ll give you an idea of how much your company will earn should you decide to start a business in a particular state.

The current quarter is likely to be far worse, with analysts expecting the economy to tumble by a record amount in data going back to the 1940s. Bloomberg Economics has projected a 37% annualized contraction, but UniCredit is the most bearish with a 65% estimate.

The first-quarter downturn, reported Wednesday by the Commerce Department, was led by the steepest drop in consumer spending since 1980 and the fastest decline in business investment in almost 11 years.

The worse-than-expected report reveals the wide-scale hit to U.S. output from Covid-19 and the subsequent freezing of economic activity.

“It’s kind of incredible when you think about the fact that the economy was running pretty much on a normal footing for over 80% of the first quarter,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC, said on Bloomberg Radio.

U.S. stocks gained amid renewed hopes for a drug to fight the coronavirus, helping investors shrug off the GDP data. The dollar slipped and Treasury yields were lower.

She forecast that 2021 would only see a partial recovery. Ms Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, made her bleak assessment in remarks ahead of next week’s IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings. Emerging markets and developing countries would be the hardest hit, she said, requiring hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid. “Just three months ago, we expected positive per capita income growth in over 160 of our member countries in 2020,” she said. “Today, that number has been turned on its head: we now project that over 170 countries will experience negative per capita income growth this year.” She added: “In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression.”

Ms Georgieva said that if the pandemic eased in the second half of 2020, the IMF expected to see a partial recovery next year. But she cautioned that the situation could also worsen. “I stress there is tremendous uncertainty about the outlook. It could get worse depending on many variable factors, including the duration of the pandemic,” she said.

Her comments came as the US reported that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits had surged for the third week by 6.6 million, bringing the total over that period to more than 16 million Americans.

The new fed funds rate, used as a benchmark both for short-term lending for financial institutions and as a peg to many consumer rates, will now be targeted at 0% to 0.25% down from a previous target range of 1% to 1.25%.

Facing highly disrupted financial markets, the Fed also slashed the rate of emergency lending at the discount window for banks by 125 basis points to 0.25%, and lengthened the term of loans to 90 days…

The quantitative easing will take the form of $500 billion of Treasurys and $200 billion of agency-backed mortgage securities. The Fed said the purchases will begin Monday with a $40 billion installment…

The Fed added in its statement that it “is prepared to use its full range of tools to support the flow of credit to households and businesses and thereby promote its maximum employment and price stability goals.”

Apple was the first to hit the market cap milestone in 2018. Then, Microsoft and Amazon followed. Apple and Microsoft are still valued at more than a trillion dollars while Amazon has since fallen below the mark.

Analysts are bullish on the company’s newly appointed CEO, Sundar Pichai. In a surprise announcement in December 2019, Alphabet founder Larry Page announced plans to step down as CEO, along with co-founder and president Sergey Brin.

Pichai had already been the CEO of Google, which includes all the company’s core businesses — including search, advertising, YouTube and Android — and generates substantially all its revenue and profits. But he reported to Page, who also oversaw other businesses making long-term bets on experimental technology like self-driving cars and package delivery drones. Now, he’s in charge of the whole conglomerate, although Page and Brin still have control over most of the company’s voting shares, giving them significant influence in major decisions.

“It is unusual that this has been such a persistent recovery,” Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC.

Economists cite a few reasons for why the expansion has lasted for so long. For one, the U.S. was coming from a low point at the end of the last decade. Much of the expansion over the past ten years has been spent recovering from the Great Recession…

Overall, economic expansions have started to last longer in the post-war period. The NBER, which keeps the official tally of recessions in the U.S., found expansions have lasted an average of 58.4 months from 1945 to 2009, compared to 35 months from 1919 to 1945. One reason for this, economists say, is that policymakers have gotten better at responding to changes in the economy while inflation has remained subdued…

Another reason economists say the expansion has lasted so long is that the memory of the crisis is still fresh in the minds of consumers and businesses, making them more risk-averse and alert to the next downturn.

The new store formats and licensing initiative could launch as soon as the first quarter of 2020, according to a person familiar with the project. Amazon is testing a supermarket equipped with Go technology in a 10,400-square-foot retail space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The Go expansion is the e-commerce giant’s latest attempt to compete in the $900 billion U.S. grocery industry and perhaps other areas of retail, as well. The company already operates the Whole Foods Market chain and last week confirmed plans to launch a separate supermarket brand, starting with a location in the upscale Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Those stores will have human cashiers. The previously unreported plan to expand Go revives Amazon’s original vision of creating full-size grocery stores without checkout lines.

Amazon opened the first Go convenience store at its Seattle headquarters almost two years ago and now operates 21 locations around the U.S. It’s not clear how much money the company has lavished on the project, but some of the 1,000 or so people working on it were recently told their cumulative salaries have totaled more than $1 billion since the project got underway in 2012, the person said.

Big tech companies see financial services as a way to get closer to users and glean valuable data. Apple Inc. introduced a credit card this summer. Amazon.com Inc. has talked to banks about offering checking accounts. Facebook Inc. is working on a digital currency it hopes will upend global payments…

Google is setting its sights fairly low. Checking accounts are a commoditized product, and people don’t switch very often. But they contain a treasure trove of information, including how much money people make, where they shop and what bills they pay.

The company will have to convince a public that is increasingly wary of how tech companies are using personal data that it can be trusted with people’s finances. Federal regulators are examining whether the user information Google gets from its search engine, home speakers, email service and other apps gives the company an unfair advantage over competitors, the Journal has reported.

Mr. Sengupta said Google wanted to bring value to consumers, banks and merchants, with services that could include loyalty programs, but it wouldn’t sell checking-account users’ financial data. The company said it doesn’t use Google Pay data for advertising purposes and doesn’t share that data with advertisers.

Fifty-eight percent of people recently surveyed by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. said they would trust financial products from Google. That was better than Apple and Facebook but worse than Amazon.

“If we can help more people do more stuff in a digital way online, it’s good for the internet and good for us,” Mr. Sengupta said.