Where Small Business Blossoms
GMU Center Holds Entrepreneurs' Hands and Puts Feet to Fire

By Jennifer Buske
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 12, 2008

For entrepreneur Miles Friedman, leaving the corporate world to open a business five years ago was like sky diving for the first time.

He was heading into a world of uncertainty, he said, after spending 27 years on solid ground.

"I had been with an established organization and felt very secure," the 58-year-old said. "But when I walked out that door to start a business, it was like jumping out of a plane. You are just free falling, and it is a scary experience."

But Friedman found a parachute in the business incubator and accelerator program at the Mason Enterprise Center at Prince William.

"This absolutely helped me," said Friedman, who moved his economic and business development consulting firm Miles Friedman and Partners into the Mason facility two years ago. "Mason is committed to making your business a success. They hold your feet to the fire and don't just provide a place to work."

The Mason Enterprise Center, which is part of George Mason University's School of Public Policy, opened in the county three years ago. University officials, however, are just beginning to market the incubator and accelerator program, which provides the tools, space and counseling that businesses need to grow and stand on their own.

"We want to let people know you don't have to work out of your basement," said Jim DiModica, an adviser at the facility and a client in the accelerator program. "Other opportunities are available."

The incubator program in Prince William is the fourth that university officials have started, said Keith Segerson, director of the 38 Mason Enterprise Centers in Virginia and assistant dean at the School of Public Policy. Segerson said Prince William seemed like an ideal location for another program because there is a "strong economic development push" in the region but not much help for small businesses. The other incubator programs are in Springfield and Fairfax County.

"There are entities that provide office suites for small businesses, but this takes it to another level," Segerson said. "Here, we surround them with professional consulting and the other services they need to succeed."

The incubator and accelerator program is open to entrepreneurs who have a solid business plan and cash flow, have been operating from home for a few years and are ready for their business to take the next step, Segerson said. Businesses must fill out an application and be reviewed by a board before being accepted.

"This is not the place you come if you wake up in the morning and say, 'I'm tired of driving to work; I want to start a business,' " said Patricia Peacock, director of the Mason Enterprise Center at Prince William. "We want people who are invested in this. This is a very powerful partnership that helps put viable businesses in the community."

The program is operated out of Bull Run Hall on the university's Prince William Campus. Nine of the center's roughly 30 office spaces are filled, Peacock said, and participants pay a monthly rent of $550 to $1,200. They receive office space, all technical equipment -- such as computers, phones and copiers -- and access to a conference room and classroom space.

The setup "made it so much easier to get started. You walk in, and everything is ready to go on the first day," said Craig Stewart, president of the National Museum of Americans in Wartime, a new nonprofit group that plans to open a museum near Manassas in 2012. "Businesses also don't make light of the address. To say my office is on the campus is nice because it's a very prestigious university."

Program participants get not only the infrastructure needed to run a business; they get a professional support staff, too. Program officials provide counseling and guidance, meeting with entrepreneurs regularly to discuss goals, business plans and financing.

"This is a perfect fit for my business," said DiModica, who runs APT Impact, an audio marketing company. "Most of my employees are contracted, so I don't need a big footprint for this business. The other real value is you have all these resources at the center and university to help your business grow."

DiModica was one of the first to join the program two years ago. The now chairman-elect of the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce said he came across the program while looking for ways to help local businesses thrive.

"I was on a business development and growth task force along with Miles [Friedman], and we were talking about creating an incubator program, until we found this," he said. "We are strong advocates of this and believe it can do a lot for Prince William County."

Friedman said that for him, one of the biggest benefits of the program was having help completing all the minute tasks of operating a business.

He said participants can take part in the numerous other initiatives at the center, which include mentoring partnerships and programs on government contracting and international business development.

"Starting a new business, there are a million details you have to deal with, like insurance, Internet, filing cabinets, tax forms, bookkeeping," Friedman said. "People here helped with all those nagging details, so I could focus my time on my job."

The other big benefit, Friedman said, is having people with different skills working under one roof to share ideas and help each other out.

"My dogs loved to look at my proposals when I was working at home, but they weren't very much help," Friedman said. "Here you get people with a lot of complementary skills and who I can bounce stuff off of."

The program is meant to have a two-year graduation rate, but participants can sign on for the length of time they want. Eighty-four percent of the companies that participate in the four incubator programs meet or exceed their company goals within the first two years, she said.

Segerson said the Prince William center has an annual operating budget of roughly $120,000. He said officials can keep the price of the program fairly low, thanks to grant funding and the university, which donated the space.

"We are a state agency of the commonwealth, so we are not in profit mode," he said. "Our interest is to give back to the community and provide the best level of service that we can."

The concept of a business incubator is not new but has taken off in the past decade or so, said Linda Knopp, director of news and information for the National Business Incubation Association.

In the 1980s, there were about a dozen incubation programs across the country. Now, she said, there are about 1,100.

"This helps us grow the existing business base, especially the home business type," said Manassas Economic Development Director Debi Sandlin, adding that there are "several hundred" home-based companies in Manassas. "We are lucky Mason is such a forward-thinking university. It would be difficult to get a developer to provide the space needed for the program because it is a very high-risk investment."

Segerson said there are 105 companies in the university's four incubator programs. The Prince William facility will expand in the future, he said, and a new incubator in the county that would serve the life sciences industry has been discussed.

"This program is a win-win-win for the clients, the university and the community," DiModica said. "And this is only the beginning. The Mason Enterprise Center will continue to grow."