NBIA’s First-Ever Guide to Collecting Impact Data

Measuring Your Business Incubator’s Economic Impact: A Toolkit
Author: Meredith Erlewine
Publisher: NBIA Publications
Cover: paperback with CD-ROM (print version), PDF with interactive electronic tools (electronic version)

Collecting and reporting economic impact data can be a lifesaver for your incubation program. Armed with numbers showing the impact of your program, you can approach potential sponsors for funding and support, demonstrate your program’s contribution to the local economy, and add to the credibility of the incubation industry. But if you’re not already collecting this data, where do you start?

Start with Measuring Your Business Incubator’s Economic Impact: A Toolkit. This is NBIA’s first-ever guide to collecting and disseminating economic impact information. In this small-but-mighty toolkit, you’ll find the rationale behind data collection, the 10 data points you should track, tips for ensuring cooperation from clients and graduates, advice on how to crunch the numbers, and suggestions for ways to get the news out to stakeholders and the public. In addition, separate surveys for clients and graduates and a spreadsheet for data collection are included on an accompanying CD-ROM.

NBIA hopes that by helping our members collect and interpret economic impact data, we can begin assembling an overall picture of the industry’s impact — and thus begin to take incubation from the best-kept secret in economic development to a universally acknowledged and understood strategy to boost entrepreneurship and build community wealth. This is the first step toward achieving that vision.

NBIA would like to thank Southern California Edison for its generous support of this project.

Note: All the information in this toolkit is available in HTML format, free of charge to NBIA members, at www.nbia.org/impact. Nonmembers can access everything except the electronic tools.

NBIA also makes available a visually appealing, booklet-style version of the toolkit for those who would like to have it on hand for important meetings with stakeholders and for nonmembers who would like the electronic tools. It is available in hard copy or PDF.

Hard Copy Toolkit

Catalog ID: 399 (includes electronic tools on CD-ROM)
NBIA Member Price: $10.00
Nonmember Price: $12.00
Order now!

PDF Toolkit

Catalog ID: 402 (includes link to electronic tools)
NBIA Member Price: free at www.nbia.org/impact
Nonmember Price: $12.00
Order now!

The NBIA Bookstore Wants Your Ideas!

Is there a book that you find especially helpful when advising clients? Is there a marketing guide that your most successful graduate swears by? The NBIA Bookstore would like to know about it! E-mail the titles and authors of your favorite publications, as well as a short description of what makes them so great, to publications@nbia.org.

Return Policy

NBIA Publications will refund any orders (minus shipping) returned within 30 days of receipt. All items returned must be in resaleable condition and include a copy of your receipt.

Contact NBIA

Phone: (740) 593-4331
Fax: (740) 593-1996
340 West State Street, Unit 25
Athens, OH 45701-1565
info@nbia.org