Opening a business anywhere is a gamble. But how about in Las Vegas? In fact, due to a relatively low cost of living, low state taxes and an environment designed to attract entrepreneurship, it’s not such a bad bet. Of course, there are always drawbacks as well. Find out how your business can make a splash in the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” Las Vegas (with a little help from MightyCall.)
Thanks to ambitious Zappos founder Tony Hsieh and his $350-million Downtown project, which aims to turn downtown Las Vegas into a startup-friendly community, the entertainment oasis is soon to acquire a potential of seriously competing with major hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston. With its transitioning economy, it seems that the gorgeous clubs and famous shows are just a fraction of what “Sin City” now has to offer to small business owners.
Taxes
Nevada’s Tax Climate has always been among the least burdensome in the country. Although a new gross receipts tax was enacted in 2015, Nevada is still in the top 5 US states with the best business tax climate. This means aspiring entrepreneurs have more resources to invest in what they do and create.
Cost of living
Las Vegas can seem an expensive place to live, but that feeling quickly vanishes once you’ve stepped down the strip. Living in Las Vegas, you need around $4,105 to maintain the same standard of living you can have for $7,200 in New York, $5,800 in Boston and $5,300 in Los Angeles. Low taxes and relatively low cost of living is the main reason for businesses to relocate here. Numbeo.com is just one of the resources you can use to compare 2016 Las Vegas prices with those in your city. Needless to say, the lower cost of living means a lower minimum wage.
Commercial real estate
For most small businesses, rent money is a big issue that can stand in the way of making the desired level of profit and sometimes even lead to bankruptcy, as we see small retail stores in “hot” touristic places like Manhattan, New York, shut down. While the prices keep rising, it’s still much easier to find a good spot for a reasonable price in Vegas than, say, Chicago or southern San Francisco.
It’s fun!
Apart from the fact that for those who live in Las Vegas, all sorts of entertainment is a very short ride away, the city is a major tourist attraction that lures people from across the US and overseas. Around 39.2 million visitors travel to Las Vegas every year, and they don’t come with empty pockets.
What to consider
With the future looking bright for Las Vegas economy, compared to other regions, the local startup scene is not that crowded. While it may be really good on the early stages, a growing business may encounter a handful of challenges. A lack of tech talent is one of them, and it’s especially vital for tech startups that will eventually have to recruit in other cities or even abroad. Capital and credit are less accessible to small business than to big corporations and it may be harder to find businesses you can potentially partner with. Although Las Vegas attracts a huge amount of tourists, it has a downside — a still tourism-centric economy that will force you to plan around it. All these are the facts that are worth considering when incorporating or relocating to Las Vegas.
Despite all the challenges, the city is working on giving small business a boost. In September 2014 it became one the few cities to acquire own domain name (.vegas) and four month later, the first city in the United States to make it available to anyone in the world. The State of Nevada also offers quite a few options to facilitate small business development. Created back in 2011, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development Center (GOED) is aimed at stimulating business expansion and offers various incentives to small business, including tax abatement, employee-training grants, assistance with the cost of intellectual property development and more. A recent partnership of Nevada Small Business Development Center and LVEGA (The Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance) will offer free counseling and workshops, and make low-cost training more accessible to Las Vegas entrepreneurs.
If you’re thinking of relocating, incorporating or just virtually expanding to the City of Light, make sure to get a local business phone number with Las Vegas area code 702.
