The cities of Temecula and Murrieta have separately announced the formation of business incubators in their cities, each converting their old city halls into office and lab spaces for startups. The term “Business Incubator” derives from The Batavia Industrial Center, the first U.S. business incubator, which opened in Batavia, N.Y., in 1959. The new idea was to offer low rents to entrepreneurs to help kick start their businesses. Turns out one of the startup companies incubated chicken eggs, so the building owners would joke that they were business incubators. As the idea expanded, city governments got into the act and offered an array of business support resources and services, including business mentoring, legal advice, accounting services and web design help, all at either no or low cost.
One of the keys to incubator success, according to the National Business Incubator Association (NBIA), is the development of a “know-how network”, a broad-based pool of individual advisors from the private and academic sectors to support client businesses in various stages of their development.
The Temecula Valley Entrepreneur’s Exchange, an incubator and regional resource center, will focus on improving the success rate of fledgling businesses, which could in turn help in generating job creation and sales tax revenue. Scheduled to open on November 3rd, the city of Temecula is looking initially to use about 7,500 square feet of the 30,000-square-foot building, which will include offices, work stations, a collaboration area, recreation room and kitchen and meeting space. Rent to use the facility would run about $100 a month per work station, according to city documents.
The Murrieta incubator, officially known as Murrieta Regional Technology & Innovation Center, already has two client tenants: a software development firm and a biomarkers research group. They intend to add startups that complement each other, with a focus on medical/military technology firms.
For information on becoming a part of these incubators, either as a tenant or as part of the “Knowledge Network” of advisors, contact Kim Davidson at KDavidson@murrieta.org or Cheryl Kitzerow at cheryl.kitzerow@cityoftemecula.org.
Keith is one of 30 experienced volunteers providing FREE business counseling in the Inland Empire. To make an appointment e-mail k.larson@ cox.net or score503@netzero.net. Or visit the SCORE website at http://www.inlandempire.score.org/