Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505160006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Great. We can use all we can get.
More's the reason to hope the business-incubator project launched by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and local business and government leaders will receive the additional funding it needs to get off the ground.
The initiative is intended to provide a nest and nurturing for entrepreneurial small businesses to enhance their odds of succeeding. In the nest - a communal building - they can share clerical, janitorial, technical, accounting, business-counseling, managerial-assistance and other services that any one fledgling firm might not be able to afford on its own.
With an initial public-funding subsidy, such incubators since the concept took hold in the early '80s have in many places helped hundreds of start-up operations fly from their nest and roost as established businesses. As a result, communities get the benefits of new, home-grown businesses and jobs with roots not easily yanked up and away.
And the initial investment of public funds stays in the community, providing continuing benefits. As companies graduate from the incubator, their space is taken by new fledglings - potentially creating new jobs year after year.
The Roanoke incubator project last week received $200,000 as the first grant from state government's new Virginia Enterprise Initiative fund, designed to expand opportunities for job creation. While Lynchburg and other Virginia localities have had successful incubators, Roanoke is believed the first to have proposed operating such a facility as a demonstration program for the state.
Still necessary to make it a reality is additional funding of about $250,000. For this, the Roanoke project is seeking support from federal Community Development Block Grants and the state's Center for Innovative Technology.
Meanwhile, there's no shortage of interest. The chamber has received about 50 applications from aspiring incubator prospects. If all goes well, the project's promoters expect creation of at least 150 jobs and sales of about $15 million. Even in a hatchery, that's nothing to sneeze at.
by CNB