The history of the Southwest Florida Enterprise Center (SWFEC), formerly the Business Development Center, goes back to initiatives and efforts over 20 years ago to promote business development and entrepreneurial opportunities in the City of Fort Myers.
The SWFEC was established in January 1988. From 1988 to 2002 the SWFEC was part of the City of Fort Myers, Department of Community Development. In 2002, the SWFEC, via an inter-local agency agreement was moved from the City of Fort Myers, Community Development Department to the Community Redevelopment Agency.
In 2004 a study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the SWFEC and how it could become self sufficient in the near term future. Results of the study indicated not only a continued need for a business incubator, but an increasing demand for all that it can offer to the region. A plan for expanding facilities, adding requested programs and services, and achieving self sufficiency was submitted to the CRA Board of Commissioners. As a result, the CRA Board of Commissioners authorized SWFEC staff to prepare submission of an application to the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration for matching grant funds to expand and upgrade facilities at the SWFEC and to develop a plan to encourage other public and private funding of the project.
Economic Development
Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is constantly ranked as one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. Forecast magazine lists Fort Myers-Cape Coral 15th in its “Booming 25" ranking of the 25 fastest growing metro areas through the year 2005, while Demographics Daily (Bizjournals.com) listed Fort Myers-Cape Coral as a 5-star community for job growth, population growth and small business growth.
Currently the population for the Fort Myers MSA for 2005 is estimated by the various forecasters to be between 498,000 and 543,400 people. This trend is expected to grow through 2015.
The employment in the region and Fort Myers has been steadily growing. From 2000 to 2003, total employment has grown in Fort Myers MSA from 186,535 to 208,375. Estimates are that total employment will grow to 260,000 in 2005 and grew to 295,000 by 2010 (this is approximately a 13 percent increase over 5 years).
FORT MYERS MSA
Total Employment 2000-2003
In 2010, total retail sales are forecast to reach $7.9 billion and $9.2 billion by 2015. Growth historically was 46 percent from 1990 to 2000 and is forecast to rise by a similar amount of 43 percent from 2000 to 2010.
Total Retail Sales
Total earnings, the sum of wages and salaries and other labor income and proprietors’ income, were $4.0 billion dollars in 1990 (1996 constant dollars). From 1996 to 2000, total earnings rose by 52.1 percent reaching $6.0 billion dollars and are expected to continue the trend. Growth from 2000 to 2010 is forecast to rise by 54.9 percent reaching $9.3 billion. Economic forecast models are predicting healthy annual growth rate of about 3.6 percent from 2005 to 2010. This trend is expected to continue with total earnings rising to $11.1 billion in 2015.
Total Earnings
City of Fort Myers
Over the last decade there has been a tremendous redevelopment in the City of Fort Myers. Downtown Fort Myers has become a center for new businesses, restaurants, and social clubs. Much of this growth and opportunity is attributable to the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency. Increasingly we are seeing the growth and economic development opportunities moving east of the city to Interstate 75.
Business Incubation
A business incubator is an economic development tool designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services. A business incubator’s main goal is to produce successful firms that will leave the program financially viable and freestanding, and to promote growth and economic opportunity in the region. Currently there are over 1500 small businesses being incubated all around the world.
Brief History:
In the 1970s, economic restructuring left many formerly prosperous communities economically devastated and searching for responses. Faced with bleak economic prospects, federal devolution (budgetary and policy), and mounting constituent pressure, states transitioned their economic development policies toward more “entrepreneurial” strategies.
According to a study conducted by the US Department of Commerce (A National Benchmarking Analysis of Technology Business Incubators), business incubation started when heavy equipment manufacturer Massey Ferguson pulled out of Batavia, New York, in 1959, leaving behind a hulking 850,000-square-foot facility. This catastrophic economic event seemed like the end of the line for the town. As it turned out, it was only the beginning, not just for Batavia, but also for a new generation of emerging companies that would change the composition of the American economy. After the ax fell in Batavia, local resident Joe Manucuso bought the building the company left behind. He hoped to use it to bring new businesses and new jobs to the area. His idea was right for the times and caught on rapidly, as businesses (including an actual incubator, hence the name) attracted by cheap rents, flexible space and shared services, filled the building.
The business incubation industry in the United States grew substantially between the 1980s and the 1990s growing from fewer than 15 in 1980 to more than 500 in 1993. Of this number, 200 or more entered 1992 with more than five years’ operating experience. The success of these incubator programs and the failure of some incubation programs have enabled the industry to identify and recognize patterns that can be adopted or prevented in the future.
"Today," says Dinah Adkins, executive director of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), "business incubators offer comprehensive support to fledgling businesses." But the other important benefit that business incubators often provide is access to the kind of early-stage capital that emerging companies need.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why Use a Business Incubator?
Since starting up a small business can be such a challenge for many new business owners, business incubator is often necessary to help nurture young companies those first few months or years until they have established themselves firmly in the community. The new entrepreneur can look to the incubator for hands-on management assistance, education, information, technical and vital business support services, networking resources, financial advice as well as advice on where to go to seek financial assistance.
What Does a Business Incubator Typically Provide?
A typical business incubator is a multi-tenant facility with common office equipment and a shared conference room. There is also an on-site full-time manager to assist in the delivery of business assistance training and services. Some services commonly provided in an incubator include (1) business plan development; (2) accounting, legal, and financial planning; (3) aid in attracting investors; (4) marketing; and (5) common shared services, such as secretarial support and facility maintenance. Once a fledgling business is financially viable—and the individual entrepreneur has developed the necessary survival skills—it is hatched into the open market, where it hopefully hires new employees and begins to contribute to the local (regional) economy
What is the Goal of Business Incubation?
The goal of an incubator according to the National Business Incubation Association is not only to ensure the small business survives the start-up period where they are most vulnerable, but to produce confident, successful graduates that are well grounded financially and secure in their knowledge of how to run a productive business independently, within two or three years of start-up. On the average 30 percent of an incubator’s clients graduate, and 87 percent of incubator graduates remain in business, according to the ‘Impact of Incubator Investments Study’, published in 1997. Worldwide more than 80 percent of incubator clients in both industrialized and industrializing nations successfully transition from the incubation program to profitability.
Business incubators make a difference in their communities.
In 2001 alone, North American incubators assisted more than 35,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment for nearly 82,000 workers and generated annual earnings of more than $7 billion.
Business incubators create successful companies and reduce the risk of investment.
Business incubators reduce the risk of small business failures. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) member incubators report that 87 percent of all firms that graduated from their incubators are still in business. Startup firms served by NBIA member incubators annually increased sales by $240,000 each and added an average of 3.7 full- and part-time jobs per firm.
The business incubation industry continues to grow.
Today there are approximately 950 business incubators in North America, up from 587 in 1998 and just 12 in 1980. Approximately 60 percent of business incubators are either self sufficient or could be self sufficient if subsidies ceased. In 1997, only 13 percent believed they could continue at current levels without subsidies.
Business incubation is an economic development best value.
For every $1 of estimated annual public investment provided to the incubator, clients and graduates of NBIA member incubators generate approximately $30 in local tax revenue alone. NBIA members report that 84 percent of incubator graduates stay in their communities and continue to provide a return to their investors. In addition, publicly supported incubators create jobs at a cost of about $1,100 each, whereas other publicly supported job creation mechanisms commonly cost more than $10,000 per job created.
The NBIA estimates that North American incubator clients and graduates have created approximately half a million jobs since 1980. That is enough jobs to employ every person living in Denver, Colo. Every 50 jobs created by an incubator client generate another 25 jobs in the community.
Business incubators serve a variety of communities and markets. Some facts about incubators are:
- 47 percent of incubators are mixed use, accepting a wide variety of clients; 37 percent focus on technology firms; 7 percent serve manufacturing firms; 6 percent focus on service businesses, and the remainder concentrate on community revitalization projects or serve niche markets.84 percent of incubators are nonprofit and 16 percent are for profit.
- 44 percent of incubators draw their clients from urban areas, 31 percent from rural areas and 16 percent from suburban areas. Nearly a tenth (9 percent) of all programs draw clients from outside their region or from outside the United States.
- The most common sponsors of incubators are academic institutions (25 percent), government (16 percent), economic development organizations (15 percent) and for-profit entities (10 percent). However, 19 percent of incubators have no sponsoring entity.
- The most common goals of incubation programs are creating jobs in a community, enhancing a community’s entrepreneurial climate, retaining businesses in a community, building or accelerating growth in a local industry, and diversifying local economies.
The history of the Southwest Florida Enterprise Center (SWFEC), formerly the Business Development Center, goes back to initiatives and efforts over 20 years ago to promote business development and entrepreneurial opportunities in the City of Fort Myers.
The SWFEC was established in January 1988. From 1988 to 2002 the SWFEC was part of the City of Fort Myers, Department of Community Development. In 2002, the SWFEC, via an inter-local agency agreement was moved from the City of Fort Myers, Community Development Department to the Community Redevelopment Agency.
In 2004 a study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the SWFEC and how it could become self sufficient in the near term future. Results of the study indicated not only a continued need for a business incubator, but an increasing demand for all that it can offer to the region. A plan for expanding facilities, adding requested programs and services, and achieving self sufficiency was submitted to the CRA Board of Commissioners. As a result, the CRA Board of Commissioners authorized SWFEC staff to prepare submission of an application to the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration for matching grant funds to expand and upgrade facilities at the SWFEC and to develop a plan to encourage other public and private funding of the project.
Economic Development
Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is constantly ranked as one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. Forecast magazine lists Fort Myers-Cape Coral 15th in its “Booming 25" ranking of the 25 fastest growing metro areas through the year 2005, while Demographics Daily (Bizjournals.com) listed Fort Myers-Cape Coral as a 5-star community for job growth, population growth and small business growth.
Currently the population for the Fort Myers MSA for 2005 is estimated by the various forecasters to be between 498,000 and 543,400 people. This trend is expected to grow through 2015.
The employment in the region and Fort Myers has been steadily growing. From 2000 to 2003, total employment has grown in Fort Myers MSA from 186,535 to 208,375. Estimates are that total employment will grow to 260,000 in 2005 and grew to 295,000 by 2010 (this is approximately a 13 percent increase over 5 years).
FORT MYERS MSA
Total Employment 2000-2003
In 2010, total retail sales are forecast to reach $7.9 billion and $9.2 billion by 2015. Growth historically was 46 percent from 1990 to 2000 and is forecast to rise by a similar amount of 43 percent from 2000 to 2010.
Total Retail Sales
Total earnings, the sum of wages and salaries and other labor income and proprietors’ income, were $4.0 billion dollars in 1990 (1996 constant dollars). From 1996 to 2000, total earnings rose by 52.1 percent reaching $6.0 billion dollars and are expected to continue the trend. Growth from 2000 to 2010 is forecast to rise by 54.9 percent reaching $9.3 billion. Economic forecast models are predicting healthy annual growth rate of about 3.6 percent from 2005 to 2010. This trend is expected to continue with total earnings rising to $11.1 billion in 2015.
Total Earnings
City of Fort Myers
Over the last decade there has been a tremendous redevelopment in the City of Fort Myers. Downtown Fort Myers has become a center for new businesses, restaurants, and social clubs. Much of this growth and opportunity is attributable to the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency. Increasingly we are seeing the growth and economic development opportunities moving east of the city to Interstate 75.
Business Incubation
A business incubator is an economic development tool designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services. A business incubator’s main goal is to produce successful firms that will leave the program financially viable and freestanding, and to promote growth and economic opportunity in the region. Currently there are over 1500 small businesses being incubated all around the world.
Brief History:
In the 1970s, economic restructuring left many formerly prosperous communities economically devastated and searching for responses. Faced with bleak economic prospects, federal devolution (budgetary and policy), and mounting constituent pressure, states transitioned their economic development policies toward more “entrepreneurial” strategies.
According to a study conducted by the US Department of Commerce (A National Benchmarking Analysis of Technology Business Incubators), business incubation started when heavy equipment manufacturer Massey Ferguson pulled out of Batavia, New York, in 1959, leaving behind a hulking 850,000-square-foot facility. This catastrophic economic event seemed like the end of the line for the town. As it turned out, it was only the beginning, not just for Batavia, but also for a new generation of emerging companies that would change the composition of the American economy. After the ax fell in Batavia, local resident Joe Manucuso bought the building the company left behind. He hoped to use it to bring new businesses and new jobs to the area. His idea was right for the times and caught on rapidly, as businesses (including an actual incubator, hence the name) attracted by cheap rents, flexible space and shared services, filled the building.
The business incubation industry in the United States grew substantially between the 1980s and the 1990s growing from fewer than 15 in 1980 to more than 500 in 1993. Of this number, 200 or more entered 1992 with more than five years’ operating experience. The success of these incubator programs and the failure of some incubation programs have enabled the industry to identify and recognize patterns that can be adopted or prevented in the future.
"Today," says Dinah Adkins, executive director of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), "business incubators offer comprehensive support to fledgling businesses." But the other important benefit that business incubators often provide is access to the kind of early-stage capital that emerging companies need.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why Use a Business Incubator?
Since starting up a small business can be such a challenge for many new business owners, business incubator is often necessary to help nurture young companies those first few months or years until they have established themselves firmly in the community. The new entrepreneur can look to the incubator for hands-on management assistance, education, information, technical and vital business support services, networking resources, financial advice as well as advice on where to go to seek financial assistance.
What Does a Business Incubator Typically Provide?
A typical business incubator is a multi-tenant facility with common office equipment and a shared conference room. There is also an on-site full-time manager to assist in the delivery of business assistance training and services. Some services commonly provided in an incubator include (1) business plan development; (2) accounting, legal, and financial planning; (3) aid in attracting investors; (4) marketing; and (5) common shared services, such as secretarial support and facility maintenance. Once a fledgling business is financially viable—and the individual entrepreneur has developed the necessary survival skills—it is hatched into the open market, where it hopefully hires new employees and begins to contribute to the local (regional) economy
What is the Goal of Business Incubation?
The goal of an incubator according to the National Business Incubation Association is not only to ensure the small business survives the start-up period where they are most vulnerable, but to produce confident, successful graduates that are well grounded financially and secure in their knowledge of how to run a productive business independently, within two or three years of start-up. On the average 30 percent of an incubator’s clients graduate, and 87 percent of incubator graduates remain in business, according to the ‘Impact of Incubator Investments Study’, published in 1997. Worldwide more than 80 percent of incubator clients in both industrialized and industrializing nations successfully transition from the incubation program to profitability.
Business incubators make a difference in their communities.
In 2001 alone, North American incubators assisted more than 35,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment for nearly 82,000 workers and generated annual earnings of more than $7 billion.
Business incubators create successful companies and reduce the risk of investment.
Business incubators reduce the risk of small business failures. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) member incubators report that 87 percent of all firms that graduated from their incubators are still in business. Startup firms served by NBIA member incubators annually increased sales by $240,000 each and added an average of 3.7 full- and part-time jobs per firm.
The business incubation industry continues to grow.
Today there are approximately 950 business incubators in North America, up from 587 in 1998 and just 12 in 1980. Approximately 60 percent of business incubators are either self sufficient or could be self sufficient if subsidies ceased. In 1997, only 13 percent believed they could continue at current levels without subsidies.
Business incubation is an economic development best value.
For every $1 of estimated annual public investment provided to the incubator, clients and graduates of NBIA member incubators generate approximately $30 in local tax revenue alone. NBIA members report that 84 percent of incubator graduates stay in their communities and continue to provide a return to their investors. In addition, publicly supported incubators create jobs at a cost of about $1,100 each, whereas other publicly supported job creation mechanisms commonly cost more than $10,000 per job created.
The NBIA estimates that North American incubator clients and graduates have created approximately half a million jobs since 1980. That is enough jobs to employ every person living in Denver, Colo. Every 50 jobs created by an incubator client generate another 25 jobs in the community.
Business incubators serve a variety of communities and markets. Some facts about incubators are:
- 47 percent of incubators are mixed use, accepting a wide variety of clients; 37 percent focus on technology firms; 7 percent serve manufacturing firms; 6 percent focus on service businesses, and the remainder concentrate on community revitalization projects or serve niche markets.84 percent of incubators are nonprofit and 16 percent are for profit.
- 44 percent of incubators draw their clients from urban areas, 31 percent from rural areas and 16 percent from suburban areas. Nearly a tenth (9 percent) of all programs draw clients from outside their region or from outside the United States.
- The most common sponsors of incubators are academic institutions (25 percent), government (16 percent), economic development organizations (15 percent) and for-profit entities (10 percent). However, 19 percent of incubators have no sponsoring entity.
- The most common goals of incubation programs are creating jobs in a community, enhancing a community’s entrepreneurial climate, retaining businesses in a community, building or accelerating growth in a local industry, and diversifying local economies.