Serving Clients

This incubator offers a comprehensive program of business assistance services. [View]

This incubator helps companies build their management team. [View]

This incubator helps companies raise financing. [View]

This incubator has developed an effective service provider network. [View]

This incubator screens and regularly evaluates business service providers, company mentors and other client advisors to ensure high quality. [View]

This incubator’s management regularly meets with clients to assess their needs and offer advice, referrals and solutions to problems. [View]

This incubator actively facilitates networking (doing business, sharing contacts, equipment, expertise, etc.) among its clients and with the outside business community. [View]

This incubator helps clients establish milestones to measure the progress of their business and checks back regularly with them about meeting these milestones. [View]

This incubator gives highest priority to time spent directly serving clients and organizes its resources to ensure the incubator is devoted, above all, to growing companies. [View]

This incubator evaluates its program of services at least annually. [View]

This incubator adds, removes, or changes business assistance services as the result of systematic evaluation based on its mission statement, changes in client or business conditions, surveys of client needs, requests, and other factors. [View]

This incubator offers a comprehensive program of business assistance services.

Incubator managers seeking excellence in their programs put client services first. They know that providing start-up businesses with the tools they need to grow and succeed is the main goal of incubation programs and what separates them from simple real estate operations. That’s why NBIA recognizes as a best practice the need to “prioritize management time to place the greatest emphasis on client assistance, including proactive advising and guidance that results in company success and wealth creation.”

All too often, however, managers with the best intentions get derailed by the demands of daily operations—overseeing finances, keeping sponsors happy, and maintaining the building, to name just a few. Devoting ample time to serving clients while negotiating operational tasks requires dedication and real organizational savvy—especially for incubators that are staffed leanly. It also requires support from a board of directors that recognizes that client service comes first. To increase one-on-one time with clients, managers can implement strategies such as creating volunteer advisory and review boards and delegating administrative tasks to operational staff. (See the “Incubator Staffing” chapter.)

Common incubator offerings include help with business plan writing, assistance securing capital, and shared administrative services. But services vary depending on an incubator’s mission and focus as well as on individual clients’ needs. For example, a professor commercializing a university technology might need help creating a product or prototype, while a client developing a grilling sauce at a kitchen incubator might need access to bottling equipment. Services must be tailored to a company’s stage of development; the skills, personalities, and experience of its management team; access to funding; and many other factors. Determining which services clients need requires careful assessment during the admissions interview and ongoing assessment throughout the clients’ time in the incubator.

Part of an incubator manager’s assistance to clients is the development and administration of a service provider network. The network gives clients access to high-level (and often reduced-rate) legal, accounting, financing, and other types of business assistance that might not be available from the incubator staff. The manager’s goal in developing a service provider network should be to identify and recruit a group of experts who will be readily available and able to resolve most problems faced by client companies. By negotiating pro bono or reduced rates with service providers, incubator managers help their clients conserve much-needed capital. Beyond that, being able to tell potential clients that they’ll be able to call a lawyer, ask a question, and not get a $250 bill is a major selling point for the incubator.

Many incubators also offer services to affiliate clients who pay fees to participate in the incubator’s service program and activities but are not occupants of the incubation facility. An affiliate program sometimes is used to groom clients who aren’t ready for full incubation or to ease graduates’ transition to life outside the incubator. Affiliate programs also can generate revenue for the incubation program while expanding its community outreach.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, Self-Evaluation Workbook for Business Incubators, NBIA Publications, 2003, p. 58.

For further information on incubator client services, see:

• Walker, Brian, and Nan Kalis, “A Menu of Services,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, pp. 207-217. This chapter provides an overview of most basic incubator services. The publication also contains other potentially helpful chapters: “Incubators Without Walls," “Assisting Retail Clients,” “Kitchen Incubation Programs: Serving Food-Related Businesses,” “Incubating Arts Related Businesses,“ “Striving for Rural Incubation Success,” “Incubators and Specialty Farmers: A Value-Added Partnership,” and “Youth Programs: Growing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs.” Other chapters focus on specific types of services, such as business planning, assisting clients to obtain financing, working with mentors and advisors, etc. Many of these chapters are available as Quick Reference PDF documents from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
  
• Knopp, Linda, 2006 State of the Business Incubation Industry, NBIA Publications, 2007, pp. 26-30. (Information on the types and prevalence of many client services, including the types of incubators that offer them.)
  
• Search the online NBIA bookstore for the keywords “client services – general” and "coaching clients" to find many other resources that address general incubator services as well as services at sector-specific incubators.

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This incubator helps companies build their management team.

The incubator plays a dual role in assisting clients with building management teams. Clients first need help deciding what type of skills to bring to their team; then they may need assistance with finding the right people and structuring the deal. For the incubator manager, this assistance requires extensive one-on-one work and no beating around the bush.

“It’s absolutely imperative that you be brutally honest with your clients about the skills they don’t have,” says Robert J. Calcaterra, former CEO and president of the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise in St. Louis, Missouri…who required that his clients attend mandatory one-on-one meetings at least once a month. “But 90 percent of the time we [met] almost weekly. And if there [were] critical issues, [it was] daily,” Calcaterra says.

According to Bonnie Herron, executive director of the Gwinnett Innovation Park in Norcross, Georgia, analyzing the founders’ skills is a subjective process that depends on the manager’s own expertise and experience in running a company. She and two of her colleagues at Intelligent Systems [now Gwinnett Innovation Park] help clients make these decisions, based on their own prior business experience.” The three of us have been involved in [a total of] sixty different companies as operating people,” Herron says. “We know what we weren’t good at and can discern what our clients are having trouble with. It’s mostly a gut feeling, but based on experience.”

Advising clients on team building goes beyond helping them create a team with the correct sum total of skills. It involves building a team that can work together. The significance of company culture is often new territory for the founder of a start-up. Managers might ask clients what kind of company atmosphere they envision, one with a fiercely competitive client or one that is familial and democratic.

Incubator managers often must serve as facilitators in this area, understanding the client’s values and finding people who are compatible. “One of the critical skills that an incubator manager must have is the ability to judge the proper chemistry between founders and potential new executives,” Calcaterra says. Once clients know precisely the type of person and skills they’re looking for, the incubator can help them find that person. Offering information and training to clients on the subject of recruiting can help. If clients are well-informed about the recruitment and hiring process, it will be less confusing when it comes time to bring someone on.

Excerpted from Erlewine, Meredith, “Building a Start-Up’s Management Team,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 228-233. This chapter provides more information on how incubator staff can help, types of potential management team members and what start-ups can offer experienced team members.

For further information on building a company's management team, see:

• Harvard Business School
  Grooming Next-Generation Leaders
  Article about identifying talent and teaching leaders
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Tips for Hiring at the Top
  Advice for hiring good top executives
  

This incubator helps companies raise financing.

Raising money can be a daunting process, particularly in challenging economic times. But entrepreneurs can find money – if they build a company that investors believe will earn them solid returns. “Entrepreneurs who are well-prepared and have a decent market and a decent team can rise over other persons who are ill-prepared,” says Joel Wiggins, former director of the University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) in Austin, Texas. [Wiggins is now CEO and president of the Enterprise Center for Johnson County in Lenexa, Kansas.]

Incubator managers can give their clients an edge in the investment capital search by challenging entrepreneurs to think strategically and creatively about their businesses. Effective capital-raising processes evaluate early on what steps companies need to take to be well prepared to seek investors. As part of such a process, a company must sharpen its business strategy, focus on how it’s going to make money and make sure its management team can lead the company to its next stage. That team has to understand what customers want and have a plan for getting those customers to buy their product. Of course, the team also must know how much money it needs to raise and where to find it.

And when clients are ready to make a pitch to investors, incubator staff can give their clients another leg up on the competition by helping them perfect the presentation that investors will see. However, the initial investor presentation – most often a PowerPoint presentation – is only the show that grabs the investor’s attention. “You’ve got to have a lot of substance in the company to go behind it,” Wiggins says.

Excerpted from James, Carol, “Going After Capital,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 234-239. Also see in this publication, ”Connecting Clients with Angel Investors,” “Business Valuation Basics,” “Helping Clients Navigate Cash Flow Waters,” and “Creating Loan Funds for Start-up Companies.” Some of these chapters are available as Quick Reference PDF documents from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers). Search the NBIA Bookstore for key words “capital access.”

“Nontechnology companies will spend more time searching and finding the right financing deal or deals,” says Rick Ritter, technology services consultant at the TECenter on Boise State University’s west camps in Nampa, Idaho, and former director of the Idaho Innovation Center in Idaho Falls. "They must work harder and smarter, and the result is less money.” Early stage non-technology companies may be looking for an equity investment to help them grow to a $10 million or $20 million company. To help these companies, managers should become knowledgeable about alternative financing opportunities, according to Ritter. These include Small Business Investment Corporations (SBIC), Business and Industrial Development Corporations (BIDCO), and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), among others.

Excerpted from Erlewine, Meredith, “Beyond Loans: Where Nontechnology Start-Ups Find Cash,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA publications, 2004, pp. 259-264. This chapter provides an overview of these and other sources of financing available to start-up companies. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

For further information on selecting clients, see:

• Osnabrugge, Mark van, and Robert J. Robinson, Angel Investing: Matching Start-Up Funds With Start-Up Companies, Jossey-Bass, 2000. Available from the NBIA Bookstore.
  
• Hill, Brian E., and Dee Power, Attracting Capital From Angels: How Their Money – and Their Experience – Can Help You Build a Successful Company, John Wiley & Sons, 2002. Available from the NBIA Bookstore.
  
• Warwick, Mal, How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters, 2^nd Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2008. Available from the NBIA Bookstore.
  
• Abrams, Rhonda, The Successful Business Plan, 5^th Edition, The Planning Shop, 2003. Available from the NBIA Bookstore.
• U.S. Small Business Administration
  Loans, Grants & Funding
  Numerous links to information on financing, loans and funding
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Making a Good First Impression
  Tips for making a good impression on a potential investor
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Presenting Your Plan
  Information about how to pitch your plan to investors; includes a checklist
  
• www.entrepreneurship.org. Click on "accounting and finance" on the Resource Center Topics menu.
  
  

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This incubator has developed an effective service provider network.

Part of an incubator manager’s assistance to clients is the development and administration of a service provider network. The network gives clients access to high-level (and often reduced-rate) legal, accounting, financing, and other types of business assistance that might not be available from the incubator staff. The manager’s goal in developing a service provider network should be to identify and recruit a group of experts who will be readily available and able to resolve most problems faced by client companies. By negotiating pro bono or reduced rates with service providers, incubator managers help their clients conserve much-needed capital. Beyond that, being able to tell potential clients that they’ll be able to call a lawyer, ask a question, and not get a $250 bill is a major selling point for the incubator.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, Self-Evaluation Workbook for Business Incubators, NBIA Publications, 2003, p. 58.

Although incubation professionals can and should be closely involved with incubator client companies, their time is also well spent finding, recruiting, and managing a strong network of service providers – consultants knowledgeable in specific subject areas who assist incubator clients on an as-needed basis, usually for free or at reduced rates. Incubator service provider networks often include accountants, lawyers, venture capitalists, scientific experts, and others who can assist new ventures. These high-level professionals typically are not affordable for early-stage companies, and without them, the value of an incubation program diminishes significantly.

But if you’re going to put your companies’ futures in the hands of outside consultants, they should be ones you trust. Service providers aren’t just the volunteers you settle for because you couldn’t afford staff to do the job. They have the potential to be the resource that makes your program exceptional.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, and Hayhow, Sally, “Managing a Network of Service Providers,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, p. 114-118. This chapter provides detailed information on finding top-notch professionals, screening consultants, compensation, communication and other issues. It is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

A know-how network, or professional services network, is a collection of experts from the incubator’s region who are willing to provide services to the incubators’ clients at no cost or at reduced rates. These networks typically consist of senior level accountants, attorneys, marketing specialists, venture capitalists, professors, technology specialists and others who have chosen for one reason or another to support new ventures. These individuals are not typically available to early-stage ventures and, thus, the value of the incubator is its ability to make these valuable individuals available to its client. It is important to understand that not every individual in these broad groups can provide value to the network. Consequently, an incubator should focus on developing a pool of individuals who are recognized as experts in the particular areas represented by the incubator’s clients (such as communications technology, information technology and biotechnology, among others). The process of attracting these individuals may take time, but it will become easier once the incubator has established its own identify as a valuable source of support for successful ventures.

Many incubator managers have used the term enlightened self interest (or value to the participant) to explain why they have been able to obtain the services of such talented individuals at cost-effective rates. Some professionals participate for the opportunity to obtain new, potentially lucrative clients or to indentify investment opportunities, while others participate for the public relations benefits or the desire to give something back to the community. Regardless of the reason, acknowledging and managing the value to these participants will be as important to the incubator as it will be to the client businesses it services, because without them, the value of the incubator to new ventures diminishes significantly.

Excerpted from Wolfe, Chuck, Dinah Adkins, and Hugh Sherman, Best Practices in Action – Guidelines for Implementing First-Class Business Incubation Programs, NBIA Publications, 2001, p 13. This chapter also includes information on the use of professionals for client mentoring and advisory boards.

For further information on developing a service provider network, see:

• Amey, Herb, “Strength in Numbers: Incubators, SBDCs partner to help grow businesses,” NBIA Review, April 2007. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
  
• Walker, Brian, “How to Leverage Volunteer Assistance,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 119-121. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
• Colbert, Corinne, “Entrepreneurs in Residence Bring Street Cred to Client Counseling,” NBIA Review, February 2007. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
  
• Gerl, Ellen, and Nan Kalis, “How Mentors and Advisors Add Value,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 222-227. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

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This incubator screens and regularly evaluates business service providers, company mentors and other client advisors to ensure high quality.

Incubation professionals who expect a lot from their service providers choose them carefully. Careful screening will ensure you find talented people who understand the dynamics of early-stage companies. “Make sure you understand the capabilities, core competencies, and time availability of your service providers, says Bob Thomson, director of enterprise development at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “The last thing you want to do is waste anybody’s time.” He also recommends checking references on service providers just as you would employees. “Certain consultants are very capable of embellishing their credentials,” he says.

Many incubation programs have a formal process for screening service providers, including the Nidus Center, which has more than one hundred high-level consultants. “We literally interview everyone personally,” says Robert J. Calcaterra, former incubator president & CEO.

Testing or trying out consultants on a trial project is another way to weed out those who are not a good match for your incubation program. Bruce Gjovig, director of the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks, North Dakota, looks for someone with particular expertise, then puts him or her on a single project. That gives incubator staff and clients a chance to see if they like the consultant’s “work, expertise, and attitude” and also if he or she rises to the challenge of working with entrepreneurs and small growth companies. “We let the entrepreneur know that it’s not somebody we’ve used before but somebody who’d very much like to work with entrepreneurs,” he says. “And then we ask them to keep us posted. If [the service provider] doesn’t do quality work, then we won’t use them again.”

The Nidus Center uses a similar strategy. “In many cases we assign them or introduce them to one of the companies and essentially test drive them to see if they are good, provide the needed time, have appropriate motivation, and so forth,” Calcaterra says.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, and Sally Linder, “Managing a Network of Service Providers,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 114-118. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

Incubator managers must regularly evaluate services to ensure relevancy and effectiveness. A manager can gather input via annual client surveys and focus groups, and through informal interactions with clients and graduates. Based on the feedback, incubator staff members then can eliminate or adjust ineffective programs or add new programs that reflect client requests and changes in business conditions.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, Self-Evaluation Workbook for Business Incubators, NBIA Publications, 2003, p. 59.

For further information on ensuring the quality of client advisors, see:

• Amey, Herb, “Strength in Numbers: Incubators, SBDCs partner to help grow businesses,” NBIA Review, April 2007. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

This incubator’s management regularly meets with clients to assess their needs and offer advice, referrals and solutions to problems.

Identifying client needs is an ongoing process. At the onset, an incubator must clarify the needs of applicants to determine whether the services offered by the incubator can provide sufficient value to adequately fulfill these needs and, thus, justify their admission into the program. The incubator must continually assess the needs of clients on a proactive basis to address the ever-changing environment [they face]. Early in the process this may consist of daily meetings with the management team. As the management team matures, this may diminish to semimonthly or monthly meetings, but pick up once again if the venture works to secure equity capital. Regardless of the situation, needs identification provides the platform from which an incubator can take action to assist its client.

The Role of Needs Identification

• Provides a benchmark for screening new applicants, allowing staff to assess if the ventures are ready for incubation and if the incubation program has adequate value-added services to fill the applicants’ needs
  
• Clarifies actions to be taken and resources to be mobilized by clients as well as incubator staff during coaching and facilitation activities

Excerpted from Wolfe, Chuck, Dinah Adkins, and Hugh Sherman, Best Practices in Action – Guidelines for Implementing First-Class Business Incubation Programs, NBIA Publications, 2001, p. 7.

If an incubator doesn’t track client progress formally or on a regular basis, neither the incubator nor the start-up might recognize the problem until it’s too late.

That’s why the staff of the Emerging Technology Centers meet with the executive teams of client companies as they enter the Baltimore incubation program and every six months afterward. During the initial meeting, they establish a set of goals the client hopes to achieve during its tenure as an incubator client. Incubator staff use these milestones, which are based in part on each company’s business plan, to gauge a client’s development and growth over time. Typically, the initial goals address four basic areas of business development: product/service development; marketing and sales; management and staff growth; and funding/financing.

After the initial meeting, a review panel comprising the incubator’s four professional staff members and a number of business mentors meets with each client every six months. “We look at the client’s overall progress and movement toward business-plan-stated goals,” says ETC Executive Director Ann Lansinger. “We step back and define and measure growth.” At those meetings, the incubator staff and clients also agree on milestones the company should be able to meet over the next six months.

Why does ETC make such a concerted effort to track clients’ progress when the staff also meet regularly with clients through its mentoring program and other informal interactions around the office? Lansinger says the formal review process is designed to help the staff and the clients focus on the “big picture” of helping companies succeed. “It’s helpful to keep tabs on how well the companies are developing overall and where they might be experiencing problems,” she says. “The objective is to make sure companies are making progress and to help them access the resources they need to fill in any holes.

Excerpted from Knopp, Linda, “Keeping Things in Check: Tracking Progress Can Help Ensure Clients Become Graduates,” NBIA Review, June 2006. This article covers how incubator manager track clients, what they track and incentives they use. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

For further information on monitoring client progress, see:

• Lohr, David, “Creating and Managing a Client Mentor Program,” and Schmidt, Booker, “Helping Early-Stage Entrepreneurs Avoid Common Mistakes.” These NBIA Webinar archives are available through the NBIA Bookstore ($29/members; $49 nonmembers); search on “coaching clients.”
  
• Erlewine, Meredith, et al., “Serving the Inexperienced Entrepreneur,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 307-312. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Nurturing Entrepreneurship at Every Level
  Tips for running an organization that encourages entrepreneurship
  

This incubator actively facilitates networking (doing business, sharing contacts, equipment, expertise, etc.) among its clients and with the outside business community.

A much-vaunted benefit of business incubation programs is the synergy that develops from client networking. Incubator managers recognized the effects of client networking for many years before research confirmed them. However, the extent and significance of these effects was unknown until Gregg Lichtenstein revealed them in his 1992 doctoral dissertation for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, “The Significance of Relationships in Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of the Ecology of Enterprise in Two Business Incubators.” Since then, it has been imperative for best practices incubators to provide the environment and facilitation required to encourage client networking.

Lichtenstein described thee types of benefits that clients realize through their interactions and relationships: Psychological, instrumental and developmental

Psychological – The first represents the moral and psychological support the incubator provides clients and clients offer each other. In a best practices incubator clients feel nurtured, encouraged and supported. They obtain a sense of security that they would not have on their own. Given the extreme stresses that entrepreneurs experience when careers, investments and even family relations are threatened, the atmosphere of the incubator can provide a significant margin of difference. While legend extols the entrepreneur who started business in a garage or dorm room, these isolated venues are probably best suited to the youth entrepreneur who has few responsibilities or endangered investments. As Lichtenstein notes: “The uncertainty of not knowing from one day to the next about whether one is going to survive can be extremely stressful.”

Instrumental – Instrumental benefits are those that relate to the work or tasks of operating a business; they may take the form of increased sales, lowered costs, enhanced capabilities and reduced risk. These benefits derive from beneficial business contacts and expertise provided by the incubator’s know-how network, mentors and other experts, opportunities for sharing employees and equipment, cobidding and the availability of computers, laboratories and other business and technical resources.

Developmental – Developmental benefits involve “the process of increasing the firm’s and entrepreneur’s abilities by acquiring skills and generating new ideas.” According to Lichtenstein, entrepreneurs are learners in many aspects of their work. Interaction with others facilitates the process – from informal meetings at the coffee machine to formal CEO meetings, at which significant issues are raised and discussed. While entrepreneurs also learn through presentations by outside experts, the “tilling and watering of the soil” both before and after these presentations represented by peer interactions is invaluable to the learning process.

Lichtenstein characterizes eight factors that influence incubator interactions. These are:

• Types of businesses – Clearly it is easier for companies in similar industries to share equipment, obtain contacts and learn from each other.
  
• Personal characteristics – Some entrepreneurs are loners and not suited to an incubator environment, which requires a willingness to take advice and accept criticism.
  
• Stage of development – Entrepreneurs at the same stage of development face similar changes and benefit from sharing problems, whereas entrepreneurs at lower stages of development can also learn from and emulate those that have preceded them.
  
• Space – Layout of space contributes to interaction. A common entryway, common lunch and meeting rooms, doors that are open, and windows from client spaces into hallways and in meeting rooms all encourage greater interaction among entrepreneurs.
  
• Forums – CEO meetings, brown bag lunches and other facilitated discussion forums permit learning and interaction, and they help create the trust that is necessary for high-level synergistic relations.
  
• Critical mass – The smaller the number of firms in the incubator, the less likely entrepreneurs will find others with common interests or problems, or resources for sharing. Likewise, an extremely large program might make meeting others of like interest more difficult unless attention is given to overcoming barriers.
  
• Norms and attitudes – the incubator must promote norms and attitudes that include sharing, support, openness to ideas and friendly relations among clients. Potential clients who show evidence of unfriendliness, excessive secrecy and unwillingness to learn from others should be excluded at the outset.
  
• The incubator manager – Perhaps the “most important influence on interaction,” according to Lichtenstein, is the incubator management. It is key for the manager to recognize the importance of relationships to entrepreneurship and to be skillful in promoting them. A manager who stays behind closed doors is the wrong choice for any incubator.

Excerpted from Wolfe, Chuck, Dinah Adkins, and Hugh Sherman, Best Practices in Action – Guidelines for Implementing First-Class Business Incubation Programs, NBIA Publications, 2001, pp. 29-30. Examples of programs that promote networking, including brown-bag lunches and meetings of entrepreneurs and stakeholders, are also described in this publication.

For further information on encouraging client networking, see:

• Adkins, Dinah, and Gregg Lichtenstein, “How to Encourage Networking,” A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004, pp. 288-291. This chapter is available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
• Phillips, Jim. Who you know really CAN make a difference, NBIA Review, February 2008. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
• Contacts Count newsletter, www.contactscount.com/newslettersubscription.html
  
• About.com: Entrepreneurs
  Business Networking for Entrepreneurs
  Overview of the importance of networking and links to articles with further information
  
• Business Know How
  10 Tips for Successful Business Networking
  Advice on how to network effectively
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Human Capital Pays Dividends for Entrepreneurs
  Article about the benefits of building support networks of peers and business acquaintances
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Networking – Targeting Organizations and Groups
  Worksheet to help assess current networking and identify new opportunities

This incubator helps clients establish milestones to measure the progress of their business and checks back regularly with them about meeting these milestones.

Regular conversations between clients of the Advanced Technology Development Center and its business development staff have long been a staple of the Atlanta-based incubation program. Former ATDC General Manager Tony Antoniades says keeping tabs on clients’ progress – whether through informal hallway discussions or regularly scheduled reviews – alerts the staff when a company might need assistance with developing a pitch to investors or lining up customers and lets the clients know how the incubator might be able to help.

Each of ATDC’s 43 clients sits down monthly with one staff member to talk informally about their progress and quarterly with two incubator staff members to review financials. (ATDC has a business development staff of 6.5 full-time workers.) “During these conversations, both the clients and the incubator can be held accountable,” Antoniades says. “We can look each other in the eyes and say, ‘This is what you said you’d do when we last met. Have you done it?’”

If an incubator doesn’t track client progress formally or on a regular basis, neither the incubator nor the start-up might recognize the problem until it’s too late.

That’s why the staff of the Emerging Technology Centers in Baltimore, Md., meet with the executive teams of client companies as they enter the Baltimore incubation program and every six months afterward. During the initial meeting, they establish a set of goals the client hopes to achieve during its tenure as an incubator client. Incubator staff use these milestones, which are based in part on each company’s business plan, to gauge a client’s development and growth over time. Typically, the initial goals address four basic areas of business development: product/service development; marketing and sales; management and staff growth; and funding/financing.

After the initial meeting, a review panel comprising the incubator’s four professional staff members and a number of business mentors meets with each client every six months. “We look at the client’s overall progress and movement toward business-plan-stated goals,” says ETC Executive Director Ann Lansinger. “We step back and define and measure growth.” At those meetings, the incubator staff and clients also agree on milestones the company should be able to meet over the next six months.

Why does ETC make such a concerted effort to track clients’ progress when the staff also meet regularly with clients through its mentoring program and other informal interactions around the office? Lansinger says the formal review process is designed to help the staff and the clients focus on the “big picture” of helping companies succeed. “It’s helpful to keep tabs on how well the companies are developing overall and where they might be experiencing problems,” she says. “The objective is to make sure companies are making progress and to help them access the resources they need to fill in any holes.

Excerpted from Knopp, Linda, “Keeping Things in Check: Tracking Progress Can Help Ensure Clients Become Graduates,” NBIA Review, June 2006. This article covers how incubator managers track clients, what they track and incentives they use. This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).

For further information on monitoring client progress, see:

• From A Comprehensive Guide to Business Incubation, Completely Revised 2nd Edition, NBIA Publications, 2004: Gerl, Ellen, ‘Warning Signs of Clients in Distress,”, pp. 321-326; Erlewine, Meredith, et al., “Serving the Inexperienced Entrepreneur,” pp. 307-312; Gerl, Ellen, “Encouraging Clients to Plan for Graduation,” pp. 317-320. All of these chapters are available as a Quick Reference PDF document from the NBIA Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Measuring Performance
  Article about how to measure success
  
• Entrepreneurship.org
  Success Measurement Worksheet
  Chart for setting success measurements and goals
  
• BNET Business Network
  A New Approach to Assessing Benchmarking Progress
  Article about how to conduct successful organizational benchmarking
  
• PHS Management Training
  Steps in Benchmarking: Five Key Stages
  Outline of steps involved in the benchmarking process
• AuroraWDC.com
  Seven Steps to Effective Competitor Benchmarking
  Outline of a seven-step process for benchmarking
  
• Business.com
  Benchmarking Your Business Financials
  Links to resources to help with the benchmarking process and also tips and tactics
  
• Gaebler.com
  www.gaebler.com/Business-Milestones-that-Matter.htm
  Article describing most important business plan milestones
  
• Bplans.com
  Milestones Make Your Business Plan a Real Plan
  Article about how to set milestones with a sample chart
  

This incubator gives highest priority to time spent directly serving clients and organizes its resources to ensure the incubator is devoted, above all, to growing companies.

Incubator managers seeking excellence in their programs put client services first. They know that providing start-up businesses with the tools they need to grow and succeed is the main goal of incubation programs and what separates them from simple real estate operations. That’s why NBIA recognizes as a best practice the need to “prioritize management time to place the greatest emphasis on client assistance, including proactive advising and guidance that results in company success and wealth creation.”

All too often, however, managers with the best intentions get derailed by the demands of daily operations—overseeing finances, keeping sponsors happy, and maintaining the building, to name just a few. Devoting ample time to serving clients while negotiating operational tasks requires dedication and real organizational savvy—especially for incubators that are staffed leanly. It also requires support from a board of directors that recognizes that client service comes first. To increase one-on-one time with clients, managers can implement strategies such as creating volunteer advisory and review boards and delegating administrative tasks to operational staff.

Common incubator offerings include help with business plan writing, assistance securing capital, and shared administrative services. But services vary depending on an incubator’s mission and focus as well as on individual clients’ needs. For example, a professor commercializing a university technology might need help creating a product or prototype, while a client developing a grilling sauce at a kitchen incubator might need access to bottling equipment. Services must be tailored to a company’s stage of development; the skills, personalities, and experience of its management team; access to funding; and many other factors. Determining which services clients need requires careful assessment during the admissions interview and ongoing assessment throughout the clients’ time in the incubator.

Part of an incubator manager’s assistance to clients is the development and administration of a service provider network. The network gives clients access to high-level (and often reduced-rate) legal, accounting, financing, and other types of business assistance that might not be available from the incubator staff. The manager’s goal in developing a service provider network should be to identify and recruit a group of experts who will be readily available and able to resolve most problems faced by client companies. By negotiating pro bono or reduced rates with service providers, incubator managers help their clients conserve much-needed capital. Beyond that, being able to tell potential clients that they’ll be able to call a lawyer, ask a question, and not get a $250 bill is a major selling point for the incubator.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, Self-Evaluation Workbook for Business Incubators, NBIA Publications, 2003, p. 58.

The best incubator managers ultimately will have an openness and freshness that allow them to recognize an idea and nurture the entrepreneur though all the challenges of going from the kitchen table to a successful independent business. “I believe the best incubators build upon the dreams of entrepreneurs,” says Tom Ulmer, former Pennsylvania incubator manager. This is an important point that underscores the very purpose of your program. To successfully incubate companies, an incubator must have a full business development program in place, and to be a best-practices incubator, that business development program should have considerable staff attention behind it to continually ensure the caliber of the services. A staff that pays attention to the matters of real estate at the expense of the companies’ needs might as well not call itself an incubator.

Excerpted from Human Resources: Finding the Right Staff for Your Incubator, NBIA Publications, 1999, p. 6. This publication also contains information about hiring incubator staff and the work performed by incubator managers, as well as where to find incubator CEOs. The book also includes job descriptions for top management positions, mid-level positions, support staff and other positions.

For further information on the time incubator management spends with clients, see:

• Knopp, Linda,2009 Incubation Industry Compensation Survey, NBIA Publications, 2010, and Knopp, Linda, 2006 State of the Business Incubation Industry, NBIA Publications, 2007.

This incubator evaluates its program of services at least annually.

Incubator managers must regularly evaluate services to ensure relevancy and effectiveness. A manager can gather input via annual client surveys and focus groups, and through informal interactions with clients and graduates. Based on the feedback, incubator staff members then can eliminate or adjust ineffective programs or add new programs that reflect client requests and changes in business conditions.

Excerpted from Cammarata, Kathleen, Self-Evaluation Workbook for Business Incubators, NBIA Publications, 2003, p. 59.

One approach to incubator evaluation comes from the client’s perspective. An incubator manager must regularly gather feedback from clients about the usefulness and effectiveness of the incubator’s program and services. Based on the feedback and keeping the incubator’s mission in mind, the manager then can eliminate or adjust ineffective services or add new programs that reflect client requests and changing needs.

Client surveys are a useful way to gather not only outcome data, but also client satisfaction data. Questions gauging client satisfaction might cover:

• Training and mentor programs
  
• Space and facility services
  
• Networking and social events
  
• Efforts to assist firms in obtaining financing
  
• Service provider programs
  
• Incubator staff performance

• Has this program been helpful to you? If so, how?
  
• How do you think the incubation program could be improved?
  
• Have any staff been particularly helpful or unhelpful? If so, how?

For further information on surveying clients, see:

• Colbert, Corinne, A Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications, 2007: "Primary market research," pp. 8-14, "Survey design tips," p. 9, and "Fine-tuning your services," pp. 23-24.
  
• Free Management Library
  Basic Guide to Program Evaluation
  Information about what program evaluation is, why you need it and how to conduct it
  

This incubator adds, removes, or changes business assistance services as the result of systematic evaluation based on its mission statement, changes in client or business conditions, surveys of client needs, requests, and other factors.

One approach to incubator evaluation comes from the client’s perspective. An incubator manager must regularly gather feedback from clients about the usefulness and effectiveness of the incubator’s program and services. Based on the feedback and keeping the incubator’s mission in mind, the manager then can eliminate or adjust ineffective services or add new programs that reflect client requests and changing needs.

Client surveys are a useful way to gather not only outcome data, but also client satisfaction data. Questions gauging client satisfaction might cover:

• Training and mentor programs
  
• Space and facility services
  
• Networking and social events
  
• Efforts to assist firms in obtaining financing
  
• Service provider programs
  
• Incubator staff performance

• Has this program been helpful to you? If so, how?
  
• How do you think the incubation program could be improved?
  
• Have any staff been particularly helpful or unhelpful? If so, how?

Clients of the Amoskeag Business Incubator of Manchester, New Hampshire, complete an annual written review, which includes a request for program feedback and suggestions. In one such survey, clients asked for regular all-incubator meetings, something executive director Julie Gustafson had resisted. “I had always felt like I didn’t have time for it,” she says. But she acquiesced and began offering a monthly breakfast meeting in which she talks about incubator news and policies and clients take turns making presentations about their businesses. They also talk about their successes, challenges, and various business topics; sometimes Gustafson invites an outside presenter.

The meetings created a more collegial feel within the incubator and fostered greater cooperation among clients, Gustafson says. “They’ve been more inclined to [work] with each other and they talk more in the hallway,” she says. “It took some of those businesses that stick more to themselves and got them out there. It’s definitely had a positive impact.”

As part of an overall market survey conducted in 2000, researchers for the University of Florida Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator in Alachua, Florida, asked clients to rank the importance of various incubator services and benefits. They then compared those ratings with the incubator’s perception of their importance. The differences were sometimes startling, says Incubator Manager Patti Breedlove.

“These are generally scientist-founded companies,” she says. “The biggest challenge is getting business leadership in these companies, and until then, they don’t recognize the value of certain things.” For example, the clients interviewed for the survey placed far less importance on some services – such as the incubator’s assistance with business and financial planning, help in finding funding sources, and collaboration with the University of Florida’s Office of Technology Licensing – than the incubator staff did.

Part of the job of incubating such companies is ensuring that the scientists in charge understand that they need to develop their business skills – or recruit other individuals who have them. “These findings reinforced our commitment to make sure that incubator management delivered that message at every turn, and to provide activities which give our start-up scientists a chance to mingle and meet with business leadership of other companies in our incubator,” Breedlove says.

As a result, the incubator now hosts monthly networking socials for clients and graduates. It also does more to promote matchmaking between researchers and entrepreneurs, such a sponsoring a program through the Office of Technology Licensing that will, in some cases, pay entrepreneurs to write business plans and market assessments for scientists interested in starting a company. “The hope is that the business person and the scientist will work well together and end up starting a company together,” Breedlove says.

Adapted from Colbert, Corinne, A Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications, 2007, pp. 23-24.

For further information on surveying clients, see:

• Colbert, Corinne, A Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications, 2007: "Primary market research," pp. 8-14, "Survey design tips," p. 9, and "Fine-tuning your services," pp. 23-24.
  
• Free Management Library
  Basic Guide to Program Evaluations
  Information about program evaluation, why you need it and how to conduct it