03-30-1987 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

-3- Since the fall of 1985, this concept has been examined in the context of a set of specific objectives. As a concept the idea of a 8 11 Business Incubator/Accelerator is not a novelty; there is a large body of information about actual initatives: some successful and some not so successful. However, many of the iniatives have been focused on new start-up companies and oriented to *high technology" oar se. In many cases, the work opportunities created have been ver,- remote from the two constituencies of critim need. High technology start-up companies have a critical need for highly educated, highly motivated, young professionals. Their need for the disadvantaged and the dislocated is very limited. In addition, there has been in marry of these iniatives a heavy focus on the facility itself and its attendant professional and support services. In marry cases, everything is provided from advice on the use of venture capital to word processing capabilities. All of this activity, however, may account for much less than fifteen percent of the budget expenses of the small business. Consequently, many of these incubator facilities have gotten into serious trouble, both those for -profit and those under no -profit auspices; at least this is true for the record in the Twin Cities. A soft market for commercial and industrial real estate has also impacted initiatives involving this budget item. By comparison, the cost of labor is, alwayp, a large item in any corporate budget; thus the concept here is not focused on facility, per as, and management service, but rather upon access to subsidized human resources, and its training. Moreover by training is meant not only instruction specific and general but on-the-job work experience. HERD is focused on providing human resources important to the corporate goals. This is the first objective. The second objective is to provide preferential opportunity to corporations with labor intensive products and services, where numbers of persons are needed to create the product or service, and where growth and success of the business results in the demand for even larger numbers of like persons. Examples in the product area are provided by such business enterprises as the processing of food items or the making of costume jewelry. In the service area, illustrations are afforded by telemarketing conganir:s or messenger C¢ courier services. Business Plan: Herr, 1;'15/87:PSA:05