The Incubator is the title of an affiliation of businesses housed together on floor three of the Entrepreneurship Center located at 285 South 68th Street Place here in Lincoln.
The Incubator, as the name implies, helps hatch and grow starting small businesses. It is administered by the Entrepreneurship Center’s director, Tim Mittan.
All the businesses in the Incubator are small, but they act as a support system for each other, providing knowledge on legal and technical issues that a start-up might have. The Incubator acts as a support system within itself, in addition to the counseling the companies receive from seasoned businessmen and women.
Andrew Jablonski, Chief of Short Bowel Syndrome Foundation Inc., is a graduate of the Southeast Community College Entrepreneurship Center and currently runs his non-profit organization out of the a third floor office in the Incubator. He describes the setting as an opportunity to learn from others that have gone through what you are fighting with.
“I’ve gotten to meet some people I wouldn’t have gotten to meet,” Jablonski commented. “ There’s a variety of personalities. They can be your allies…and Tim (Mittan) downstairs is a good sounding board – someone to go to.”
The SBS Foundation focuses its efforts on education in the diagnosis, condition and treatment of Short Bowel Syndrome, a rare disease that until recently had little known about it. In this condition, the small intestine is significantly shorter than in an average human being, leading to digestive issues.
“I have this,” Jablonski began, “and I can tell you…my body absorbs one-third of the calories per meal that (others) get for the same meal.”
Another resident of the Incubator is Ms. Jennifer Rosenblatt, Founder of Argyle Octopus Press Inc. The Argyle Octopus is a promotional material company for small and medium sized businesses. In addition, it provides cards, stationery and other printed materials for baby showers, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and other personal events.
“This was the first place I came to,” Rosenblatt commented when asked about the Incubator. “Tim (Mittan) sent me the application, and I couldn’t answer any of the questions on it!”
She commented that the selection process for the Incubator required a vast amount of preparation and projections in addition to a business plan.
After running the business out of a friend’s office for a while, though, she took a second look at the application with the aid of experience. “I filled it out in five minutes,” she laughed.
Rosenblatt has experienced positive results, expanding her business quickly. “I didn’t want to squeeze pennies,” she spoke. “ I didn’t want that kind of business,”
She commented that business can be used as a tool to do wonderful things, citing http://consciouscapitalism.org/ as a resource for others who others who believe that business can be both profitable and ethical. “I’m doing good through business, and I’m not alone in it.”
If interested in seeking promotional material or personal printed goods, visit the Argyle Octopus at http://www.argyleoctopus.com
For more information or to volunteer for the SBS Foundation, its website is http://www.shortbowelfoundation.org/
This is article #5 of a series on the Entrepreneurship Center, its instructors and its alumni. The following article will cover Professor Richard Kohn, current teacher and prior entrepreneur of Hobbies, Etc.