8 most business-friendly cities

Nashville is a cheap place to live, and taxes are low.

Even better, the cooperative atmosphere that fosters its formidable music scene also makes it a great place for entrepreneurs.

Songwriters here work together, and the business community takes the same approach, said Kate O'Neill, who traveled to Nashville as a musician in 2003. "There's a really connected, collaborative spirit I haven't seen elsewhere," said O'Neil, now CEO of [meta]marketer, a marketing analytics firm.

That sense of community also makes it easier for startups to strike deals with other business owners, said Brian Tolbert, who founded health-care advisory firm Bernard Health in 2009. Tolbert was pleased to find that local firms were so willing to take his cold calls.

"Because you have such a transient population, it's a very open community," he said. "They're much more open to taking meetings from strangers. I don't think we would be able to have that kind of success in other markets."

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