Business incubator center on Plant City
The Business Incubator Center (BIC) opened in room PEPC 136 on the Plant City Campus in the fall of 2016 in order to better serve the community and the college. The BIC was first established by six local business owners from varying companies as a sort of entrepreneurship program to help people start their own businesses by offering classes. They met with Dr. Clay, the Plant City Campus President, and he was impressed enough to help them set up a collaboration space on campus so people could meet with business mentors.
One of the mentors involved is Roderick Henderson who is a business owner and graduate of HCC. He actually started a business while he was still a student and ran into quite a few issues. He had no one to talk to, so he had to learn on his own from any mistakes he made. Now, Henderson wants to “to help others with issues they may have.” He focuses on what the first three years of a business look like and the issues that arise, such as budgeting and business plans.
Besides budgets and business plans, the BIC offers classes in topics ranging from business conversation, marketing, and business and bank relations. Henderson stresses that businesses show some kind of growth before going to a bank for more support. Banks like to see “You’ve been in business and will respect the growth you’re having.” When banks see that a business has grown from a small idea into something successful, they are more likely to help out. Henderson’s advice to students or others starting a business is to start as a sole proprietorship. He believes it is the easiest, especially for a student working on his or her own. The next step would be to move up to a limited liability corporation, or LLC. As a business gets even bigger, Henderson says a business cane become a C-Corp (if there are multiple people involved) or an S-Corp (if the person is still alone in ownership).
Currently, the BIC focuses on low budget/income businesses and students just starting out. Henderson says there are three phases that the BIC mainly helps with. The first is the idea phase, which is where he believes most students are. They may not know the context of how they should get started and the goal for them is to plan a budget, set up a business plan, and get the required licenses.
The second phase is the startup phase, where the business is getting going. Finally, there is the running phase where things are going well. The classes the BIC offer help in all three phases and the BIC hopes to offer the classes online soon with possible outside licensing from large corporations.
To contact the BIC, call 813-308-0916 or email them at info@bicofplantcity.com. Their website is www.plantcitybic.com and they have information there as well.
Jason Turner is a Staff Writer for The Hawkeye
Jason Turner grew up and went to school in New Mexico. While in school, he worked at the radio station...