What do business incubators do exactly? This is what we learned and more, last Thursday. Incubators are more than just spaces that house business startups; rather, they support new entrepreneurs in the Capital region by providing resources to share, such as fax machines, copiers, and a conference space, enabling each business occupying the space to pay less in overhead costs.
Business incubators, such as the Center for New Enterprise Opportunity (NEO Center), and the Technology Innovation Center (TIC) in East Lansing also provide central business services such as financial advising, marketing and referrals to the entrepreneurs that are a part of the incubator. The goal of an incubator stands to make barriers to entry miniscule, as long as one has the passion and motivation to pursue their goal.
According to Jeff Smith of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP Inc.), incubators also act as the successful entrepreneur's cheerleader. Once a business takes off, the network of other businesses and the staff of the incubator themselves, spread the word and celebrate the success of that business in the community. A business that gains its success coming out of a local incubator is not just an achievement for the individual business, but for the Lansing community as a whole.
Tom Stewart of the NEO Center claims the majority of those hired to work for the startup businesses often come from the local community. Not to mention, when a business is started locally, even if funds to start it come from out of state sources, much of the money coming out of that business in proceeds, goes right back into the local community it is established within. And even if a few of the small businesses do fail, there are so many others locally that the impact is not felt within the community the same way a larger business would be.
While both the NEO Center and TIC support for-profit businesses, the incubator model supports not-for-profit companies and nontraditional businesses as well. In fact, Lansing is soon to host a fashion design incubator, the first of its kind in the entire country. The hope with many of these incubators is that people will stay in Lansing to start a business, rather than leave to other cities. The fashion design students coming out of Michigan State University will soon have a place to go and give their business ideas a try, rather than having to flee to New York or Chicago to get a start.
Michigan stands ahead of the curve of business incubators within the country, with eleven alone in the Greater Lansing region, yet the community lacks the awareness about this valuable resource. People need to start spreading the word about the incubator spaces available and as long as an entry level business hopeful meets the requirements of that particular incubator they are hoping to join, such as meeting the term limit criteria, they too, can take advantage of the support of fellow entrepreneurs and business experts.
Get more of a sense for the topics of the evening here:
Capital Gains Speaker Series - Incubators and the Economy from Dan Hartley on Vimeo.
---
Shannon Nobles is the Speaker Series Correspondent for Capital Gains.
Photos ©
Sommer Young
Video © Dan Hartley
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.