A potentially viable program to encourage business development and growth in Anderson is shifting gears.
The Anderson Business Incubator, home to five budding entrepreneurs, is receiving needed and renewed emphasis in a partnership that should signal better success for the program.
Anderson’s incubator concept needs stronger input from business experts. Now, it should get that focus.
Emerging in Indiana as city-backed opportunities in the mid-1980s, incubators provide start-up assistance to promising entrepreneurs. Hoosiers with innovative ideas get a chance to test concepts using office or warehouse space within a city’s designated incubator area. If they find success, they can move on; it not, the cost of the investment is far lower than establishing a free-standing store or shop.
In late 2005, the National Business Incubation Association in Athens, Ohio, estimated that approximately 1,100 business incubators were operating in North America, up from 950 in 2002. Previous studies have shown that 87 percent of firms that graduated from incubators stayed in business. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy has reported that two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years, and 44 percent survive at least four years. Other statistics that business incubators increase the survival rate of start-ups from 35 percent to 87 percent.
One criticism of incubators is whether municipalities should become involved with starting up new ventures. The answer is a clearly in the affirmative.
As a way to promote jobs, cities should create incubators in unused facilities, providing tax breaks to both the owner of those empty buildings and to those willing to start their venture in the incubator.
Last week it was announced that the Anderson Business Incubator, located in the city-owned former police headquarters at 700 Meridian St., will be shuttered and hopefully sold. The five incubator firms will be moved into empty retail space. The city will decrease its ABI funding from $75,000 to $25,00.
The good news is that the incubator program will expand into a city partnership with the Flagship Enterprise Center and Anderson University. Flagship executive director DeWayne Landwehr and AU Falls School of Business dean Terry Truitt are supportive. There will not be a physical site for the incubator, which is bound to reduce the visibility of the program. However, there should be a more concentrated focus as entrepreneurs find retail space with the Flagship’s help.
The partnership is encouraging. Local entrepreneurs will have a helping hand through business experts. The city can promote the concept that it wants to create jobs and keep its business outlook moving forward. And we can all be rewarded when Anderson is recognized as the home of new technologies and products.
Editorials
Editorial: New incubator program partnership is encouraging
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