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Anderson’s incubator helps new businesses get space, advice

Michelle and Vincent Turner are living the dream and helping others in the process.

“This has been a longtime dream for Nathan and I — 25 years in fact,” Michelle said last week as she spoke at an open house at the Anderson Business Incubator in the National City Bank building at 931 Meridian Plaza. “This is a dream come true for us.”

The proprietors of GG Enterprizes set up shop just months ago, along with a handful of other businesses and organizations that rent space at reduced rates to get their companies off the ground. The Turners’ business specializes in floor and carpet cleaning, janitorial services and maintenance for residential and commercial clients.

“Imagewise, it validates us. It says we are serious about what we are doing,” Michelle said of having an office and access to the expert business advice that comes with being an incubator client.

“I was a little hesitant, a little scared, because I didn’t think we were ready for an office,” she said. But she noted that Flagship Enterprise Park/Anderson Business Incubator Director DeWayne Landwehr convinced her. “He said, I really need you.”

“This has become the missing link,” Nathan Turner said of the business coaching and expert help that their mom-and-pop business has received. “This program is just a Godsend.”

Landwehr said the incubator will allow businesses to grow a their own pace, with a goal of having many of them reach a point of paying commercial rates for space and growing into bigger contributors to the local economy. The can even find space elsewhere in the National City building.

“Now, clients will ‘graduate’ when they move from being subsidized clients to being full-pay clients, without ever having to deal with the expense and hassle of moving business locations,” Landwehr said.

Down the hall from the Turners, in a corner suite with views of the Paramount Theater and other downtown landmarks, is the headquarters of another novel startup.

Before Connie Combs was The Mobile Seamstress, offering Custom Sewing and Alterations and optional pickup and delivery, she was something else.

“I was terrified, trying to set that up,” Combs said. But a couple of years ago, she opened shop in the prior incubator location at the former Anderson Police Department. She moved over when the incubator relocated.

“I love it here,” she said. “Business is good.”

She said she pays $280 per month to rent her corner suite, and that includes Internet and phone.

During the open house, Combs said the support she has received since starting her business in September 2008 has given her encouragement and the help she needed to get going.

“I don’t know if I would have a business if it wasn’t for the ABI,” she said. “It’s a good way to get your name out there. … I think now is a good time to start a business.”

Combs showed off a color flier that lists her services, prices and contact information that was done for her by Michael Parker, an Anderson University student who expects to graduate and become a certified public accountant.

Parker is an intern at the incubator and is involved in AU’s Students in Free Enterprise, a nonprofit group that offers educational services to aspiring businesses.

“I really enjoy it because there is a certain kind of dynamic when people don’t want help and assistance,” Parker said. “Everybody here is open to help. … Everyone is so willing to work together.

“I have a lot of fun up here because you can tell everyone is so driven.”

Parker helps businesspeople with tasks from getting their financials in order to getting their message out. It’s also given him real-world experience dealing with entrepreneurs.

For the Turners, the help that the incubator has provided them has had bottom-line results.

Michelle Turner said that when she and her husband operated their business as a part-time, home-based enterprise, the most that they ever earned annually was $24,000 to $26,000. Through May, they have earned $38,000, she said. They have hired four full-time workers and one part-time worker.

“Our vision is to see us with our own building three-stories high,” Michelle said as she talked to the open house crowd on the third story offices at the incubator.

Through their affiliated nonprofit agency Greater Grace Ministries, the Turners are providing opportunities for people, with a particular missions to help people who need a job when they re-enter society after serving time in prison. Nathan Turner says his full-time employees are paid more than $10 per hour and he’s assembled a good crew.

“A lot of young people come through that system,” Nathan Turner said. “Lack of opportunity is the main thing people are facing today. … We’re all about change.

“We get a guy on a job, he gets out and learns how to lay tile or put in a sink, he can take pride,” he said. “We’re trying to help them to gain in life.”

State Sen. and Anderson City Attorney Tim Lanane said the city believes the incubator is something to be excited about.

“The word needs to get out in the community,” he said. “Let’s get these businesses going.”

He said the program also has the benefit of bringing new vitality to one of the city’s landmark downtown buildings. “This building has so much history to it, we cannot let this building fail and we will not let this building fail.”

Landwehr said the incubator concept is one that doesn’t rely solely on location. He said another effort will be to find other local property owners with an interest in using sites to help other startup businesses get up and running.

By Dave Stafford
The Herald Bulletin