Business incubators are commercial spaces designed to lower start-up costs for new and expanding businesses. Rural Enterprises of Oklahoma, Inc. (REI) has been managing incubators since the early 1980s and reports that the program continues to grow and graduate job-creating firms.
Recent graduates of the program include Rosewood Designs, a manufacturer of custom logo watch dials, and Farris Electric, providing electrical contracting services.
Farris Electric graduated from the incubator program when its phenomenal growth necessitated the construction of its own building. The business is now located in a new 5,000 square foot facility, employs 25 and is expanding into the Oklahoma City area.
“Farris Electric started as a home-based business and located into REI’s incubator when it needed office and warehouse space,” said Will Hutchinson, incubator program manager. “The company graduated from the program when it moved into its own facility and that’s exactly how the program should work.”
Current incubator businesses located at REI’s Durant headquarters are:
• Mail Tech – a direct mailing service
• SchoolWare – provides academic measuring and tracking software in public schools
• ChemTica – a subsidiary of a Costa Rica firm manufacturing insect traps
• Scholastic Communications – provides web site solutions to nearly 100 Oklahoma school districts
• Therapy Connections – provides services including physical, occupational and speech therapy in the home health industry
These businesses have created a total of 46 jobs. Another 50 jobs have been created through REI-managed facilities in Allen and when the Ada arts incubator is in full operation, more jobs will be created. REI will manage this facility for East Central University, designed for arts-related businesses.
“That’s what the business incubator program is all about,” Hutchinson said. “Creating a few jobs here, a few jobs there, one business at a time.”
Hutchinson said that according to data from the U. S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are what drive our economic engine, accounting for 94 percent of the state’s employers.
For more information about REI’s program and commercial space currently available for start-up or expanding businesses, visit www.ruralenterprises.com or call Hutchinson at 800-658-2823.