Dalton may add incubator, Cleveland studies expansion of its incubator

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Dalton may add incubator, Cleveland studies expansion of its incubator

Hurley Buff estimates that nearly nine of every 10 people who first come to the small business incubator in Cleveland, Tennessee know their product or service inside and out.

But, says the executive director of the Cleveland/Bradley Business Incubator, many of them don't know much if anything about business, which leads to a lot of self doubt. That's where the small business development center comes in, Buff says.

Studies from the U.S. Small Business Administration show small firms employ just over half of the private sector workforce and create nearly two-thirds of the nation's net new jobs. In Cleveland and in other nearby communities, officials are weighing the best ways to help small businesses start and grow.

Since its creation in 2000 on the Cleveland State Community College campus, the Cleveland incubator has tried to help more business startups with low rent and access to services which can help companies get their ventures off the ground and to soar on their own.

"They need confidence and know-how," Buff says. "We show them how to handle the business end of their journey."

Currently, the 41,000-square-foot business center is totally full with 44 small companies.

Business woman Dana Teasley started her firm Local Strategies at the Cleveland incubator in 2009 and is one of the those 44 businesses. The firm does economic and community development assistance, grant writing, strategic planning and project management primarily for nonprofits.

Teasley says the benefits are "mind-blowing" at the incubator, where her firm now is a so-called anchor tenant in which a certain percent of businesses are permitted to stay in the center after four years.

"Personally, I like being part of something that is creating businesses," Teasley says. "People don't realize what it does for the community."

Cheryl Barker, owner of SerendipityCB, started four years ago at the incubator with about 1,000 square feet and has now doubled that footprint and hired two employees.

"We're busy little bees," she quips about the business that's a provider of therapeutic massage and skin care services.

When she started her company, she knew about her products and how to perform massages and facials, but she didn't know the business side of her operation.

"That's really what they help you with - how to move forward, how to do accounting, how to get labels for products," Barker says.

Expanding the Cleveland incubator

The businesses in the Cleveland incubator collectively employ about 125 people, and Buff says there is demand for more space in the incubator by other business startups looking for low-cost space and readily accessible business assistance.

"We've got more names [of companies] on the waiting list than room," Buff says.

To help more businesses "hatch" from the Cleveland incubator, a feasibility study was just completed about enlarging the facility from 45,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet. Backers of the expansion have started looking for foundation and grant money to help fund an expansion.

"The city of Cleveland is talking to us about different properties," he says, adding that a new facility downtown is under scrutiny. "We'll have to look out there and see what lends itself to what we do."

The National Business Incubator Association reports there are more than 1,250 incubators similar to the Cleveland facility now operating in the United States, up from only 12 incubators in 1980. The trade group estimates such incubators have helped created over 19,000 businesses that are still in operation.

Dalton planning incubator

That success is encouraging colleges, Chambers of Commerce and other development groups to start incubators in even more communities. In Dalton, Georgia, the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce and Dalton State College are studying the creation of a local business incubator.

"We recognize small business is important," says Rob Bradham, president of the Dalton Chamber. "We need to be doing more. We're at a stage where we're trying to figure out what the best option for us is."

In 2015, personal finance website NerdWallet named Dalton one of the best places in the state in which to start a small business. The study said Dalton has one of Georgia's largest downtown districts, and that average revenue per business was $3.27 million, among one of the highest of the cities NerdWallet analyzed.

Bradham says there have been a number of conversations with Dalton State College and others about partnering to bolster small business opportunities.

"But we're early in the process," he says.

Bradham came to the Dalton entity from the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, which operates a longtime business incubator for the city and Hamilton County.

In the nearly 30 years that 125,000-square-foot facility has operated at Cherokee Boulevard and Manufacturers Road in Chattanooga, it has graduated more than 500 businesses. It's estimated that 90 percent of the companies which come out of the Chattanooga incubator are still in business three to five years later.