Opening for small business incubator
Published 8:27 pm Thursday, June 4, 2009
Those looking to start a small business can find a home at the Pike County Economic Development Center — and they can find it for a low price.
Marsha Gaylard, president of the PCEDC, said helping business owners get off the ground is just what the center is looking to do through its Incubator Program.
“The incubator is designed to support new business,” Gaylard said. “We accept people that are just starting a new business or people that have had home-based businesses and want to get into a more professional environment.”
Gaylard said the economic development center allows these newcomers to stay between one and five years and to rent an office for $114 per month.
“It’s not a permanent home for them,” Gaylard said. “It’s just a facility where a new business can go and receive support and be nurtured as they try to grow.”
Currently, the economic development center has one office space available, since one of its occupants Primerica is set to move.
“What we’d like to do is hopefully allow a business to stay for three years, and hopefully by that time they’re on their feet enough to go out on their own and be successful,” Gaylard said. “But we do allow them up to five years.”
During a business’s stay, Gaylard said they are allowed use of the office equipment, phone system, the conference room and various seminars offered throughout the year.
In addition to 11 office spaces, Gaylard said the center offers a technology pod for rent and two spaces in a manufacturing unit.
“The center can be used by whoever’s in the manufacturing space or the office space,” Gaylard said. “The only thing we don’t allow is retail businesses.”
Anyone interested in renting the space should contact the economic development office at 670-2274.