Economic Development

Business Incubators

Posted November 24, 2003

Business incubation is about growing businesses from scratch. Rather than trying to attract business, the incubation approach emphasizes creating and retaining new jobs by tapping the workforce and other economic resources already within a state.

Incubation programs provide physical office space and a full array of business services to start-up companies. Each incubator client - or company housed in the incubator - gets its own office space, generally with a low-cost, flexible lease arrangement. At the same time, all the incubator clients share office resources such as conference rooms and administrative staff. One of the most important shared resources incubators offer is a team of specialized staff who help run the incubator and offer business planning, management and financial services to the clients.

The National Business Incubation Association is a good resource for more information. Here are links to several state-supported business incubation programs:

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