2015 Best (And Worst) States For Channel Competition

The Saturation Situation

A state may offer lots of potential customers and plenty of business opportunities. But if that state is also crowded with solution providers competing for the same customers, then everyone's growth prospects may be limited.

So as part of the CRN 2015 Best States to Grow a Solution Provider Business analysis, we examined the ratio of solution providers in each state (according to ChannelBase, The Channel Company's solution provider database) to the number of businesses -- potential customers for solution providers -- and created the solution provider saturation index.

Here are the 10 states with the best saturation index rankings where solution providers face less competition for customers (counting down from No. 10 to the best state). That's followed by the 10 states with the worst saturation index rankings where solution providers face greater competition (counting down from No. 41 to the state with the worst ranking.)

Best States No. 10: Rhode Island

With 24,022 businesses and 395 solution providers, the Ocean State has 60.82 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 9: North Dakota

With 19,520 businesses and 304 solution providers, the Peace Garden State has 64.21 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 8: Vermont

With 18,216 businesses and 277 solution providers, the Green Mountain State has 65.76 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 7: Montana

With 31,370 businesses and 469 solution providers, the Treasure State has 66.89 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 6: Maine

With 33,078 businesses and 488 solution providers, the Pine Tree State has 67.78 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 5: South Dakota

With 21,522 businesses and 296 solution providers, the Mount Rushmore State has 72.71 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 4: West Virginia

With 28,613 businesses and 357 solution providers, the Mountain State has 80.15 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 3: Arkansas

With 50,412 businesses and 627 solution providers, the Natural State has 80.40 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 2: Mississippi

With 44,734 businesses and 552 solution providers, the Magnolia State has 81.04 businesses per solution provider.

Best States No. 1: Wyoming

Wyoming is a pretty big, wide-open state. With 17,804 businesses and only 208 solution providers, the Equality State has 85.60 businesses per solution provider.

That's the best ratio of solution providers to businesses across all 50 states.

Worst States No. 41: Texas

With 404,116 businesses and 11,434 solution providers, the Lone Star State has 35.34 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 42: Arizona

With 101,205 businesses and 2,963 solution providers, the Grand Canyon State has 34.16 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 43: Massachusetts

With 138,385 businesses and 4,056 solution providers, the Bay State has 34.12 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 44: California

With 701,899 businesses and 20,893 solution providers, the Golden State has 33.59 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 45: New Jersey

With 192.704 businesses and 6,045 solution providers, the Garden State has 31.88 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 46: Georgia

With 168,614 businesses and 5,408 solution providers, the Peach State has 31.18 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 47: Connecticut

With 71,584 businesses and 2,304 solution providers, the Constitution State has 31.07 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 48: Virginia

With 147,929 businesses and 5,261 solution providers, the Old Dominion State has 28.12 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 49: Maryland

With 107,324 businesses and 3,829 solution providers, the Golden State has 28.03 businesses per solution provider.

Worst States No. 50: New Hampshire

With 30,522 businesses and 1,171 solution providers, the Granite State has 26.06 businesses per solution provider. That's the fewest number of businesses – potential customers – per solution provider of any state.