GLENWOOD SPRINGS —Most people associate the word “incubation” with babies, but Stephanie Keister, marketing and operations manager for the Roaring Fork Business Resource Center in Glenwood Springs, says businesses sometimes need help to grow and thrive.
A business incubator, she said, “is a way for a start-up business to get capital and advice.”
The concept of incubating a business is the same as that of a baby chick or a child: nurture its development, especially during the start-up period. Programs provide business support services and resources tailored to each entrepreneur, according to the National Business Incubator Association, with common goals such as community job creation, business retention and diversifying local economies.
Colorado is home to at least eight business incubators. Most are a sort of entrepreneurial hub of individual businesses under one roof or on a campus. Grand Junction’s 23-year old Business Incubator Center, for example, houses 54 companies, including a commercial kitchen for local growers to prepare food for sale.
The Roaring Fork Business Resource Center (RFBRC) is unique. Its campus is a website with all kinds of resources. In other words, RFBRC is a virtual incubator.
Read more about the Roaring Fork Business .
