Tavares, FL August 16, 2010
Not long ago, I established a new business, Sunshine Medical Tourism, LLC. I actually formed it in 2008 after six months of research, but shelved it due to the economy.
Anyway, I started it up two months ago, and I am in a new office at 921 West Main in Tavares, at the corner of HWY 19. We are just down the street from the County Admin Building.
Separately, I had been following the UCF-run business incubator in Leesburg, and had talked to them and the City of Tavares about forming one in Tavares using the spare offices in the building I rent. I even proposed we could be a branch office for the Leesburg Incubator, since their offices are full. Incubators are office facilities with experienced business coaches for new, startup businesses. The emphasis is on growth, then they move into their own offices in 18 months. These are common in California. UCF has established a number of them
around Central Florida and Orlando.
It turns out that UCF charges for running incubators, and normally the local City provides an empty building for new business startups and also provides funds to pay for an experienced adviser and other costs. New businesses also pay around $300 monthly rent for an office, and maybe more to participate in training sessions.
I had been around incubators when I lived in California, and knew that UCF's method seemed to really help people kickstart new GROWTH oriented businesses. Incubators are not for the accountant or consultant wanting an office, but are usually for technology or marketing based businesses that have a business plan and expect to grow, get customers, get financing and grow to the point where they are bigger.
About 6 weeks ago, I attended a Mt. Dora meeting where they were deciding how to spend some redevelopment funds, and suggested they consider investing in an incubator for Mt. Dora, and at least the idea made the list of things to consider, but most of the people on the selection committee didn't know what an incubator was.
And, I found that the City of Tavares doesn't have funds to spend supporting an incubator, nor a building.
I have talked to County Commissioner Candidate Sean Parks, and he has started some wheels rolling to establish one in Clermont. At her recent presentation to the Lake County Board, Economic Development Director Dottie Keedie mentioned she might budget money for an incubator, "probably" in Clermont.
So, since I have some offices to spare, I am setting up an independent incubator and renting the offices for $250/month plus utilities. Participants can be "virtual" members of UCF's Leesburg Incubator for a monthly fee, and we can all grow together.
So, the sign went up on Saturday, and I will be sending out notices for a Tavares Entrepreneur's Group meeting to assemble interested people (who don't have to join the incubator) to kickstart the idea. No one at the County Government seems to understand this stuff, so we will do it here.
Then, today, the new Businessweek arrived, and on page 20, they had a three page article on "Betting on Incubators to Create Jobs". They describe an Ohio incubator graduate whose software company now has 200 employees. What is funny is that my Medical Tourism business was hatched after reading a Businessweek article in early 2008.
There are 1200 incubators in the US that are helping 41,000 startups, according to Businessweek. They build economies one idea at a time. 87% of startup participants survive to the 5-year mark, and they are considered major drivers in job creation. The US Commerce Dept. studied incubators and found their startups had a "higher return on dollars spent than public works projects like road building."
An Ohio Congressman has initiated a bill to allow the US Commerce Dept of Economic Development Administration to award grants up to $3-million for operations and support services. He did that because of the success of the two local incubators "have had in creating jobs in industrial ghost towns...". There are some detractors regarding incubators, so get the BW article if you want more info.
Just think, if Lake County had hired an EXPERIENCED, professional Economic Development Director in 2006 that actually understood all this stuff, and had setup incubators then, where we might be.
If you know any budding inventor, technical genius, or person who is antsy to start their own growth oriented business in an incubator environment, give them this article.
They can contact me at [email protected], and get on the list for the first group meeting with an overview of examples of technology or other businesses to start. I will also give a presentation on all the opportunities using or specializing in Google & Amazon technologies since I follow that closely.
Vance Jochim
I was a software business partner & developer for 7 years, so I am familiar with technology.
