Town Opens Business Incubator

Mount Pleasant’s new business incubator might look like just another office: six cubicles, a conference room and cushy chairs around a flat-screen TV.

But town officials have high hopes that will spur small business activity in a town already known for its entrepreneurial ambitions.

“The focus is on startup businesses,” said Quin Stinchfield, the town’s business development coordinator. “We hope that providing them with a professional space and an address, they can get a solid start and then go out into the community.”

Biz Inc has its official grand opening at 5 p.m. September 14. Already four businesses have set up shop in the business incubator.

For $250 a month, the town provides the businesses with a cubicle, phone service, Internet and access to a conference room. A business can locate in the incubator for its first 12 months of operation.

Stinchfield said she offers some oversight in that time, and she connects the tenants with community resources and guidance.

A $45,000 federal Community Development Block Grant funded the construction of the incubator in the town’s new office building at the intersection of Ann Edwards Lane and Houston Northcut Boulevard.

Town leaders had for years noticed a need to establish a business incubator, Stinchfield said. The grant, along with the move to the new building, came at the perfect time.

“If any of the businesses are a success, that’s considered a success, because they weren’t here previously,” Stinchfield said. “But ideally, we want all of them after a year to relocate their business into the Mount Pleasant community.”

Those businesses, ideally, would employ other individuals and do business with other businesses. That stimulates the economy and establishes Mount Pleasant as a community that fosters creative entrepreneurs, Stinchfield said.

Four businesses have taken the town up on the offer:

PLaCE Studios: Urban Planners and Designers;
Relocality Inc: Developer of online relocation advice that connects professionals to their ideal communities;
Innovink: An interior design venture;
Benefits Advantage Company: Provider of online business solutions, including prepaid legal services.

“As long as they have a business plan, and they are a new business, the space is available to them on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Stinchfield said.

Two spots are still open, so Stinchfield hopes creative businesses move in soon. The town is also looking for business leaders to come in provide one-on-one advice and guidance.

“The town is going after businesses in the creative sector,” Stinchfield said. “If done the right way, with the right resources, I think business incubators are a fantastic way to grow new business.”