Dear Elon Musk: I almost never write open letters, but I’m doing so here to applaud your comments about the difficulty in doing business in California.   You stunned many people by saying you might move Tesla’s headquarters and vehicle manufacturing out of California when Alameda County refused to permit your Fremont factory to re-open in […]

If your business is in California and you’re wondering if companies continue to leave the state, the answer is, “Yes, and anecdotal evidence is that the numbers are growing.” Before I identify the latest companies to depart California – 24 of them, which I’ve learned about only within the last three months – consider the […]

The other day I received a call from a small business owner in California who wants to relocate his business. He named five states that he’d like me to review with two stipulations: “I’ve got to know how friendly their business climates are, and I want you to look at the cost of housing.” The […]

If I’m known for anything in California, it’s been for my studies about companies leaving the state because of its punishing tax and regulatory policies. Sadly, new political antics will likely cause my future reports to reflect further deterioration in the state’s business climate. I say that because a new California Tax Foundation analysis found […]

Friends in economic development agencies and in the site selection consulting world have asked why I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile. My answer is simple: I’ve been exceptionally busy. It certainly isn’t because there aren’t things to write about. Another question I’m usually asked is whether businesses are still leaving California. They are, especially […]

Time and again I’ve encouraged smaller companies planning to escape California’s business-hostile environment to avoid publicly discussing their move. What follows is the story of an honest business owner expressing his legitimate concerns about operating in the state – and the unfortunate blowback that resulted. Houman Salem, who owns a small apparel design and manufacturing […]

Any business person who has dealt with California’s frustrating laws, regulations and bureaucrats was nonetheless surprised to see a story with the headline, “Uber Ships Self-Driving Cars to Arizona After California Ban.” Really? A state ban on Uber? The poster child of the billion-dollar-plus startup, tech-guru, market-disruptor club? Why would Sacramento give Uber, of all people, […]

Do more people find Hillary Clinton unreliable, calculating, deceiving, morally bankrupt and lacking in core beliefs or Donald Trump immature, petulant, unqualified, temperamental and egocentric? We will know the answer on election night. But when it comes to serious issues like job creation, it seems easier to have faith in Trump if he is elected […]

Manufacturing is the number one industry in California to pack up and move to states considered to be friendly to business. Since such losses are happening more frequently, let’s take a look at the record of a politician from a district that will soon lose a major employer. In this case, it’s Senator Connie Leyva […]

Well, not really. Two reporters moved from California to Texas and last week both of them wrote stories about companies moving to the Lone Star State. In the Dallas Morning News, Jill Cowan wrote a piece about how financial firms are shifting their business operations out of hyper-expensive New York City to “lower cost, more business-friendly […]