‘You have almost a 60% chance of failing’: Jake on WA’s poor business survival ranking

A new study found that Washington is dead last in the country in business survival, concluding that nearly 60% of Washington businesses fail in their first five years.

Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, sought to explain Washington’s poor statistics and pointed to the state’s strict COVID policies during the pandemic as a factor in the state’s ranking as the worst in the nation.

“You have almost a 60% chance of failing with a new business in Washington. You have to ask yourself, why?” Jake said. “Policy decisions that were made by politicians that affected the business community hugely. COVID’s extreme circumstances, where Washington said, ‘You’re closing, we’re going to shut you down. Nobody can come inside.’ There are a lot of other things too, like the B and O tax.”

“We’re a very difficult state to do business in, restaurants being the most difficult business,” Spike responded. “Restaurants are tough, but also in COVID, a lot of businesses went away, and I’d like to see the numbers from a five-year period like 2014 to 2019. Everybody went through COVID, not just Washington, but we had the lowest percentage of businesses that survived during COVID.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.