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New Opportunities for Ohio Entrepreneurs
< < Back to new-opportunities-ohio-entrepreneursA new partnership between Google and the Secretary of State’s Office is working to make sure Ohio is a prime location when creating a new business.
Ohio is the first state in the Midwest to partner with Google’s “Let’s Put Our Cities On The Map” program. The new partnership is working to enhance the presence of local businesses online by offering free services including creating a website domain and free hosting for a year.
Secretary of State, John Husted, said he wanted to figure out a way to help small businesses by creating a better entrepreneurial environment that would lead to more jobs and prosperity for the state.
“We wanted to take it to the next level and that’s why we have our friends from Google here today,” Husted said.
According to Google Representative, Bob Bierderman, an online presence can expand business by 40 percent.
“Thanks to this partnership with the Secretary of State’s Office, even more Ohio companies will have access to these great tools that will help them grow,” Bierderman said. “The new website is an immediate resource for new entrepreneurs to build and grow their businesses right here in Ohio,”
Secretary Husted also announced a reduction in the cost of starting a new business in Ohio.
“Today we are celebrating the fact that it got 21 percent less expensive to start a business in Ohio,” Husted said. “We have had more than 40 businesses file before we got to work this morning which shows you the importance to have an online presence when government is trying to serve [sic] its publics.”
Before today, business filings were all done on paper, could take up to several days to complete, and cost more than $200. Now, it costs $99 and can all be done online. With the price reduction, it is now cheaper to open a new business in Ohio than any other state in the Midwest.
More than 67,000 new business filings were received through August 2015 — 3,600 more than at the same time last year.
Husted said there was a concern lowering filing costs would result in less revenue for the state. “The good news is when you get better customer service, you get more customers and what happens when you get more customers? You get more revenue. We never had the revenue problem everyone complained about,” Husted said.
If you are a registered business in Ohio and would like to access Google’s free website service go to www.myohiobiz.com