Vermont ties with Colorado for fifth place among states with the highest startup rates.
Vermont sells itself as "a very friendly community for small businesses" on its state website. The Green Mountain State is home to everything from "village shops to home businesses, artists, adventurers, writers, philosophers and passionate people of all trades," the website said.
"Vermonters tend to be entrepreneurial," said Art Woolf, associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont and a former State Economist.
And fueling that entrepreneurialism is a stagnant economy that doesn't breed many new jobs. "Our population and our labor force are not growing at all," said Woolf, adding that "might suggest that if you are looking for work, you start your own business."
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