Throughout the state fledgling business owners now have the opportunity to move their corporate headquarters out of their basements and into grander accommodations. Incubators are the new tools available to bring them out of obscurity and into the mainstream.

Incubators serve as a small business hub offering shared business services such as copiers, T1 high capacity telephone lines, conference rooms and receptionists. Services like these are vital to the success of a new enterprise, but many small business owners can’t afford them on their own. The biggest plus of working out of an incubator is the address. Small businesses garner a degree of legitimacy at an incubator that is not possible when run from home.
Eric Ringelberg took the plunge and located his new company in the Lakeshore Launch Pad in Muskegon. Simply working in a professional atmosphere was the biggest plus, he said.

Ringelberg and his partner Brad Williams founded Next I.T. in May 2001 with the goal of filling a niche in the I.T. marketplace in western Michigan. The company offers end-to-end networking, IT services and counseling and on-site service as well as 24-hour customer support. Since startup, the company has experienced 500 percent revenue growth, going from two employees to 11. The company plans on hiring two more early this year to keep up with a growing roster of clients.

As the first tenant, Next I.T. proved to the skeptics that the Launch Pad is a viable working model par excellence for hatching high-tech businesses. “It was a learning experience for both Next I.T. and the Launch Pad,” said Ringelberg. “We got to learn from each other and teach each other what each end needed.” Within five months of moving into the incubator, Next I.T. doubled in size and rented additional space.

The Launch Pad is located in the Hume Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a one-stop shopping source for developing small businesses. Other tenants include Muskegon Area First, the Muskegon Area Chamber of Commerce, and a Michigan Small Business Technology and Development Center (SBTDC). The availability of business services such as free membership in the Chamber for two years, counseling from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and free legal advice, were all key to the early growth of Next I.T. “I just can’t say enough about what they’ve done to help us get started,” said Ringelberg. Next I.T. has graduation from the Launch Pad and is now located in its own building in Muskegon,. The company has already exceeded its sales goals for calendar year 2003 and is planning to open offices in Grand Rapids and Lansing.

Please reference in the above paragraph that the Launch Pad is part of the Muskegon Lakeshore SmartZone and a brief description of what a SmartZone is.

Heading south through west Michigan’s emerging tech corridor takes you to Kalamazoo, future home of another Next I.T. branch and current home of the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. Located on the campus of Western Michigan University (WMU), the Innovation Center places special emphasis on technology transfer. Since many in academia lack experience in starting or running a business, business counseling is a must. Business plan development, market research assistance, funding source identification, intellectual property counseling and grant writing assistance are some of the services available.

Temporarily located on the fifth floor of WMU’s McCracken Hall, the center has specialized space catering to life sciences startups, such as wet labs, Internet connectivity and heavy duty lab-grade electrical systems. Once a permanent building is completed at the WMU Business Technology and Research Park in March, shared equipment rooms, conference rooms and on-site parking will be available. The capacity of the facility will jump from 20,000 to 58,000 square feet. Please reference the Kalamazoo SmartZone above

A new tenant at the Innovation Center is Actives International, LLC. Actives is a New Jersey-based biotech company specializing in the development of active components for skin care products, particularly cosmetics. Actives recently located its research and development arm in the innovation center. The lab will support three main functions: develop high purity prototype ingredients from natural sources, establish efficacy and product safety and provide analytical support for the ultimate ingredients that will be produced commercially through their partner manufacturing companies.

Why would a New Jersey-based life sciences company choose Kalamazoo? “We envision growing our business by developing close relationships with the life sciences community in Kalamazoo,” said Dr. John Anderson, vice president of technology at Actives International. “We see a lot of talent in the area and hope to work closely with the university and local pharmaceutical companies to tap this highly skilled talent pool.” Having access to unlicensed technologies through WMU and a highly skilled and trained life sciences workforce is a boon to small firms like Actives

This makes it sound like he only moved into the Innovation Center because he got dragged along with his wife. Business incubators like the Lakeshore Launch Pad and the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center are making it easier for startups to take the next step in their development.