NBIA helps biz incubators help others

The National Business Incubation Association's (NBIA) headquarters have been in Athens for almost 25 years, yet many residents aren't aware of the nonprofit's presence or purpose.

The organization, located on East Circle Drive, provides business professionals with information, education, advocacy and networking resources in the process of assisting early-stage companies, according to the NBIA website.

"We don't work directly with the companies that are being started; we work with the people who are assisting those companies in getting started," explained Tracy Kitts, vice president and chief operating officer of NBIA.

Instead of going directly to NBIA for support, new businesses go into a business incubator; NBIA teaches people how to run a business incubator.

Business incubators, Kitts said, select the clients that they work with, which are usually small companies. They provide an array of services to new companies including comprehensive business assistance. They have onsite management that facilitates the delivery of certain ideas, and they eventually graduate companies. A company will work with a business incubator until it's ready to move out into the community.

"It's not just the business owner trying to figure out what to do next; there's someone that's skilled in starting the process," Kitts said.

There are an estimated 7,000 business incubators worldwide with 1,100 in the United States and two located in Athens, Kitts said. The Ohio University Innovation Center and the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) are the two business incubators in town (see separate articles in this issue). Diagnostic Hybrids is an NBIA success story. Once located in the OU Innovation Center, Diagnostic Hybrids was an incubated company and is now thriving. Third Sun Solar & Wind is another local NBIA success. Currently located in the OU Innovation Center, Third Sun has grown considerably over the last few years, Kitts said.

"These are examples of people who are growing in a down economy that have gone through the local business incubators," he said.

Kitts compared NBIA's purpose to the idea of college: a student starts college, learns how to successfully go about his or her career, and then graduates.

"Same thing with a business," he said. "There's lots of business assistance providers within a community, but there's not one place where you can go and get everything you need to know how to start a business."

NBIA is that one place. It started as a national organization (represented in its name) and has since expanded internationally. The organization is a membership association with 2,000 members in 55 nations around the world, though 70 percent of its members are in the United States, Kitts said. Some benefits members receive include access to a Listserv that allows all members to communicate and network, small training sessions, educational materials, international conferences, and certificate programs for those who want to run business incubation programs.

In 1988, NBIA moved its headquarters from Pennsylvania to Athens when previous CEO Dinah Adkins was also in charge of OU's Innovation Center. As the association continued to grow, NBIA decided to stay in Athens.

"We didn't move to Washington D.C. or Chicago or New York City. We like being in Athens," Kitts said. "For us, there's real benefit (to being located in Athens). One, we're in the field. We're in a small community that's trying to make a difference."

NBIA's 15 employees look for unique ideas others are pursuing in their business incubators, create case studies and models, and effectively observe the evolving industry, he said.

"(The employees) all came here because of passion," Kitts said. "It allows me to be involved with the business world and share my skills with people who really need it and appreciate it."