Many entrepreneurs don’t have the space or desire to start a business out of their home, yet find renting space and setting up essential support functions Is overwhelming financially and energy draining Just at a time when their financial resources and energy are most needed for development of the business Itself. A business Incubator can be the perfect solution for such a person. Business incubation provides a nurturing, instructive and supportive environment for entrepreneurs during the critical stages of starting up and growing a new business.
The goal of business incubators is to increase the chance that a start-up will succeed and achieve growth and shorten the time and reduce the cost of establishing and growing its business. If successful, business incubators can help to nurture the companies that will form the true creators of a region’s or nation’s future wealth and employment. Brief History: The first Identifiable business Incubator was launched In Batavia, New York In 1959.
More followed on a Limited scale until 1984 when the U. S. Small Business Administration (SABA) began strongly promoting incubator development. At that time there were 20 incubators in operation. Over the next few years that number rose rapidly. The National Business Incubation Association, a private membership organization of incubator developers and managers, was launched in 1985 by industry leaders. From an initial membership of 40, it has grown to almost 800 members today.
According to the National Business Association (NUBIAN) Survey of Business Incubators, by 1997 the number of business incubators had expanded to 550 in the United States alone. New Incubators have been opening at the rate of about one a week since 1986. It Is estimated that there are more than 8,000 startup firms housed In Incubators and another 4,500 entrepreneurial ventures currently operating on their own were originally launched through incubators, including a number of the Inc. 00. Over 80 percent of firms that were started through an incubator are still in operation. Business incubation is on the rise on a global scale. The united Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNDID) actively monitors and promotes the development of business incubators worldwide. They estimate that there are at 500 incubators in evolving and transition countries with an annual growth rate for new incubators being about 20 percent annually.
