Business incubators offer experienced leadership and economic space for entrepreneurs starting their business.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 70% of businesses will fail if they don’t have the marketing skills and expertise to manage certain expenses.
One state has found a way for small businesses to thrive in order to combat this.
More than 70 organizations are recognized in Florida for their role in incubating small business ventures. Among these are UF/Sid Martin Biotechnology Institute (which received the 2017 InBIA Top Global Incubator Award); Beaver Street Enterprise Center; The South Florida Accelerator, and Venture Hive. You can see the success of these programs in the numbers with startup growth increasing by 61 percent annually since 2014.
Florida stands out, regardless of whether incubator programs are sponsored or not by government agencies, academic institutions, or economic development organizations.
“There’s a movement across the country to help startups succeed,”Dr. Thomas O’Neal is the executive director of University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program, (UCFBIP), and president of Florida Business Incubators Association. “There is a culture focused on it [helping small businesses] and it’s especially friendly to do business in Florida.”
Florida has a strong reputation for helping startups thrive, which is why small businesses are flocking there. In fact, U.S. News & World Report recently named Florida number one for entrepreneurship.
Florida also has the second highest density of startups in the United States with over 100 firms per 1,000 people, according to Business Insider. This makes Florida a hot spot among innovative entrepreneurs.
“We [incubators] increase their chances of success,”O’Neal. “We get that idea off the kitchen table and make it legitimate. We teach them how to work smartly. Set milestones. We help them make connections. Incubation is a process, not a place.”
One member company of the UCFBIP would be willing to agree.
Ronnie Elliott, Alvin Cortez, and Ronnie Elliott founded an Orlando-based company that places nurses in hospitals across America for short-term and long-term assignments. They provide housing, benefits, good salaries, and build relationships with nurses in order to place them in positions that could lead to full-time employment.
Cortez, Elliott, Richard Manuel completed the incubation program on March 2016. Based on the advice received from the program, they changed the company’s name to Nurses First Solutions. This was to make the company more than just a staffing company. In the past year, their business has increased from $300,000.00 to $6 Million.
“It has been nothing short of enlightening,” Elliott says. “The program introduced us to a lot a people and opened a lot of doors. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for the incubation process. It has broadened our horizons, and we are already looking to open our next business in Florida.”
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