How Do Business Incubators Differ From Existing Business Centers Or Managed Workspace ?

Business centres are a well-established and very useful feature of most urban and rural areas and they offer small work units with shared central services. A business incubator differs partly by offering more services to client businesses, but more fundamentally in its ethos. The Director of an incubator has a much   closer and  more  hands-on relationship with client businesses; he will choose businesses  meeting  certain requirements (e.g. a promising business plan for growth),  will  encourage them to leave the incubator when they are ready, and will be judged by  the success of those businesses he helped.

Business incubators provide start-up and fledgling companies with business and management assistance, affordable space, and shared support services. They are an alternative to the office at home or the long-term lease. A business incubator's services usually include:

• A network of relationships with other business owners who provide support for each other and who may become customers or suppliers;
• Financing assistance, such as help in obtaining a bank loan or assistance in gaining access to federal and state R&D funds;
• Business and technical assistance through a combination of in-house expertise and a network of community support;
• Shared business services such as telephone answering, bookkeeping, word processing and other secretarial help, receptionist services, access to fax and copy machines, computers, and business libraries;
• Flexible space and flexible leases, often at below market rates.