The Demographics of Business Incubators

Business incubators are everywhere, from downtown metropolis settings to the most rural outskirts of communities. Clientele for each type depends on the kind of economic development a particular incubator offers. Each kind of incubator has its advantages no matter if it's technology based or bio-research based.

The most popular and well-known kinds of business incubators are probably technology or innovation based. Most often these types crop up in university towns or bustling cities. The bay area in California and Ann Arbor, Michigan are great examples. Ever since the dot.com industry has taken off, the Bay Area has remained rich with start-up companies who are always growing and changing. And with incredibly fast rate of technology development, the smallest and most specific of technologies are often hot commodities. It makes perfect sense for to find a technology-based business incubator in a location like this.

Towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan have the draw of a university for two reasons. The first is that colleges are putting out a talented pool of possible owners and workers. Recent graduates are readily available and anxious to explore job prospects. And unlike in the Bay Area, these new graduates are less expensive employees. The second reason universities towns draw business incubators is that colleges are generally great research facilities. In university towns, life science incubators are likely to show up. If there's a hospital nearby, it increases business opportunity even more. Medical technology and bioscience research are hot realms for business development. Towns like Ann Arbor are smart to offer wet lab incubators in order to take full advantage of their setting. With a wet lab incubator, the clients has the advantage of someone else regulating safety issues and keeping all equipment up to date.

While not as prevalent, there are also business incubators in agricultural regions of the world, which generally focus on crop development and such. One kind of business incubator that needs no regional demographic is a virtual business incubator. These are based solely online, but offer many of the same benefits of physical incubators.

Demographics are always a consideration when starting a business, but the important thing to remember is that business incubators typically fall into zones naturally. If you live in a big city, you'll likely have the skills and lifestyle you want to take to a new business that would fit for a business incubator already in the city. That, of course, may not mean that a different city wouldn't make a good choice for incubating your business. That's a topic for a different article.