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HCDC Mentors Business |
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Successfully mentoring early stage businesses can be challenging and rewarding. HCDC rises daily to meet this challenge. The reward is not monetary, tangible nor a number at the bottom of a financial statement. Indeed, the reward is seeing that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Hamilton County and southwest Ohio. The numbers are impressive. Since 1989, the Hamilton County Business Center (HCBC) tenants have produced aggregate revenues in excess of $300 million. In 2007 alone, new businesses located in the incubator employed more than 200 persons, resulting in an annual total payroll of more than $9 million. HCDC investigated creation of a business incubator as an outgrowth of its economic development activities and to provide an additional means to foster the creation of new businesses and additional jobs in Hamilton County, Ohio. Norwood was chosen as the location for this new business incubator to ease the impact of losing the General Motors assembly plant, resulting in over 4,200 displaced workers. With the assistance from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Ohio Department of Development, and the Hamilton County CDBG, along with its own cash contribution, HCDC purchased the facility at 1776 Mentor Avenue. Since then, HCDC has renovated this underutilized 100-year-old factory into affordable, flexible business space. Currently, the HCBC comprises approximately 70,000 square feet and houses, on average, 50 innovative and scalable entrepreneurial ventures and small businesses. This hub of entrepreneurial activity is successful due in part to the interaction, support and synergy experienced between the entrepreneurs. More importantly it is the ready access to business coaching, advice and counsel that can help spawn the difference between entrepreneurial success and business failure. The HCDC incubator is nationally recognized and is the largest incubator in number of tenants and graduates in the State of Ohio. As a mixed-use business incubator, it has helped launch both traditional and technology-based enterprises. Studies demonstrate that the average start-up business has between a 10 to 15 percent chance of reaching its five-year anniversary as a going concern. Meanwhile, companies in HCDC’s incubation program, experience more than a 70 % success rate at their respective five-year anniversary. HCBC’s continued success has been facilitated throughout the years by financial and advisory assistance from the Edison Technology Program of the Ohio Department of Development. HCBC creates an environment of nurturing and best practices, which stimulate entrepreneurial thinking, resulting in companies with innovative services and products. The incubator tenants have been recipients of over $75 million in early-stage capital funding which is vital to small business success. The HCDC incubation program offers more than office space to entrepreneurs. HCBC also offers tenants access to the Edison Technology Centers, universities, laboratories, and sources for funding. By offering expertise, guidance and support, the HCDC incubation program is dedicated to providing a diverse sustainable environment in which new and emerging companies can develop and achieve growth. This type of environment results in profitable businesses, job creation, economic growth, diversity and a positive impact on communities in southwest Ohio. |
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