City's incubator growing businesses

SANDPOINT — Some great business ideas simply need a little help getting started, and Bonner County is no exception.

Fortunately, entrepreneurs have an attractive option in the form of the Bonner Business Center. The city-owned facility allows businesses to avoid some of the prohibitive costs a business owner would normally face.

The business incubator project offers entrepreneurs who meet the requirements below-market office space and other advantages. If the businesses stay for additional years, the rates gradually increase, capping off at a consistent fee by the third year.

The facility is managed by City Planner Jeremy Grimm and office assistant assistants and administrators Becky Jensen and Lori Kern, the Bonner Business Center is a complex located on Airport Way near Lead-Lok.

Rental and service rates are priced just high enough to keep the lights on and Jensen and Kern in the office.

However, the goal is not to make a profit. According to Grimm, they simply want to break even.

“We’ve designed this so no taxpayer dollars go into it whatsoever,” he said.

Mayor Marsha Ogilvie dropped by the center Monday afternoon with Grimm to check up on some of the most promising businesses.

First up was Lifestyle Granolas, owned and managed by Craig Tate. According to Tate, the Bonner Business Center has helped him double his business every year to the point where Lifestyle Granola is available in seven different states and almost 100 different locations. The low costs will help him build his buying power until he can purchase ingredients in mass quantities. That, in turn, will lower his prices to the point where they will still be affordable after mass distributors apply a mark-up.

“That alone will essentially quadruple the size of my business,” he said.

Tate gets plenty of use from the center’s commercial-grade kitchen, which is available for all participating businesses to rent on a hourly basis. Spending between 50 to 60 hours in that kitchen allows him to produce about 2,000 pounds of granola a month.

The center’s facilities have also come in handy for Terra Cressey of Glassroots Recycling. After she paired her glass recycling business with the center a few months ago, community response was immediate and pronounced that she is now preparing for a move to a larger facility in Kootenai, making Glassroots the quickest business to graduate from the center.

“I couldn’t have done this without the community being what it is,” Cressey said.

However, that’s the ultimate goal of the business incubator program — to get entrepreneurs on their feet and grow their project into something sustainable. To ease that process, business coach Mike Wells maintains a presence at the center. He is available to program participants for advice and classes on effective business management.

Both the kitchen and the business education resources should be helpful for Tracy Gibson, the creator of Ruby’s Lube, an all-natural lubricant suitable for everything from athletics to infant care. Gibson won a promotional event in March that challenged local entrepreneurs to pitch a business plan. The victory earned Gibson six months of free incubation space — time she can use to make the product, set up the shipping and establish the brand.

“I’m really excited about it,” she said. “This lets you get started without putting your life on the line.”