April 2-8, 1919 MICHIGAN CmZEN 15
Benton Harbor Area News
City begin,
search for
'en irepreneurs
An Entrepreneur Outreach
Program, entitled Small Busi
ness Development and Start
up", was presented to area resi
dents, Wednesday, March 22 at
the Vincent Place. The program
was sponsored by the
Downtown Development
Authority, (DDA). Guest
speaker was Robert Meeder of
Pittsburg, Penn. .
Purpose of this and meetings
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F. - entrepreneurs for the city's new
incubator at Second and Ter-
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1074 E. P (818)
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ATTORNEY and COU SELOR AT LAw
K. ORRIS GAVI
GENERAL PRAC'nCE OF LAW
Call818/92 7143
Come 0fI doMI to:
JOE�Sa.t.a
DICKEY
REALTY
GROUP
2819 Detroit Rd.,
616-683-5913
·Etletydting We Touch,
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'"WETAXE <X& 'OMJ? POIl11lAT "']111_1
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ROBERT MEEDER
Meeder told the audience
how he had started working with
a business incubator program in
Pittsburg in 1982 and how well it
succeeded and he wanted to
share it with Benton Harbor
businessmen and individuals in-
. tested in starting a business.
He said in Pittsburg he just
wanted to start out working with
9-15 companies and be happy,
but then aU of a sudden the in
cuba tor program started to
blossom and grow. Now they
have 171 businesses in 15 dif
ferent locations that are helping
each other.
Over a six year period, he
said, they have only lost five
businesses.
He went on to say, "the idea
'of an incubator is like with the
chicken and egg. The incubator
watches over you for a while and
then when you feel strong
enough you leave there and then
become a hen or roos-ter,
gradually leaving the in
cubator."
-We have the same policy in
Pittsburg, that after three years,
maybe five years we would like
you to leave the incubator and
grow, go off on your' own and
succeed, - Meeder said. .
"The concept of an incubator
is to carry the business through
the survivor stages, the bad and
toughest days. Get them
through those levels of activities
until they really get a feel for
their mar et, product and the
process they go about to make
that activity, - he said.
-At the end of the incubator
Second meeting.
set for April 5,
6 p.m., Vincent
Place,
as city works
to fUI incubator.
program in Pittsburg, r found
out that the product usually is
less important than the person,"
Meeder said, "so we would like
o operate a program so that we
can focus on the entrepreneur
and their needs and tb ir ability
to handle a product,"
"First we start our' with . an
'Outreac ' Program' Ii e
tonight", Meeder said. "But then
people will have to be willi to
commit some activities, me
works and some time to that
process so there's a catch to t:h.U
program," I
The catch Meeder went on to
say is, -We only want to do only
half of the work. We want you to
do half and We do half."
"The program is free, we are
no selling tapes," he said. 'We
don't care if you move into an in- .
cuba tor or not. We are inter
ested in only helping you with
your business. Whether you are
going to locate it in the garage of
your home, go onto a side street·
in Benton Harbor or move to
Canada and open up, we just
want to help you,"
-We want to hel� you if you
are already in business, starting
a business or are curious about
starting a business,"
There are more meetings
planned. The second meeting.
he said, will be called a "Bob
Newhart- session.
"This session is where the
person would sit down with us
and tell us about their business,
the facts, things that you actual- •
Iy know and can �rify, he said.
"Then you tell us things that you
assume would happen, which
we will call assumptions."
"First we will take the as
sumptions and try turning them
into facts."
"I don't want you to be in a
situation where we would have
to- perform a miracle to save
your company's life," Meeder
told the audience. "AU we want
to do is have a program together
so we can work with you and get
rid of all those critical assump
tions."
Meeder said he wanted to,
focus on each individual as a
person d as a partner. Deal
ing with each person on a one
on-one basis, finding out what
type of business they are in and
what their goal is.