Every start-up entrepreneur lived his eureka moment when the big idea struck him, like the apple hitting Newton’s head. But, for most aspiring entrepreneurs, the eureka moment fizzles out in minutes, when different hurdles begin to hound him one after the other. From acquiring funds to hiring talented and energetic people to managing necessary overheads, the entrepreneur’s focus, which ought to be on the product or the business model, gets drifted away. Moreover, he may not even have a lot of things figured out. That’s when incubators come to the rescue.
If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, then this listicle is for you. We have jotted the top six ways in which an incubator can help you turn your excellent start-up idea into reality.
Incubators are organisations designed to help start-ups grow and succeed, and each of their functions either solves a specific issue or boosts a business growth area. They offer a range of resources and services to early-stage star-ups.
Workplace
Incubators offer a free or low-cost working space with the necessary office infrastructure, where you can brainstorm, experiment and develop your start-up idea. This space typically has all the amenities of a working office like furniture, cubicles, tech-enabled conference rooms, wi-fi, coffee machines and so on. Incubators are known to maintain a strictly professional yet a lively environment that stimulates creativity and action. Financially speaking, the workplace mainly eliminates a significant chunk of your overheads.
Expertise
As an entrepreneur, you will often encounter new challenges requiring expert advice to overcome them. Incubators hire in-house and guest experts who you can consult with and gain from their knowledge and experience. These experts are established entrepreneurs or highly qualified professionals. If your wavelengths are compatible, they can also become your mentors or coaches and guide you in making long-term strategic decisions for your start-up.
Investors
Incubators partner with different cadres of investors. And investors closely watch their incubating start-ups. The investors may show relatively more interest and trust in your start-up because you would not have to stray from product development, thanks to the administrative support of the incubator. Unwavering focus makes your effort and commitment more credible to prospective investors.
Networking
Another star function of an incubator is its frequent networking events. Incubators organise networking meets and invite industry experts, millionaire entrepreneurs, investment advisors, start-up coaches, speakers, government officials and other stalwarts from the start-up arena. You can connect and build beneficial relationships with them and develop your business prospects. Since networking is vital in any business, incubators do a fantastic job of introducing you to relevant people, organisations and authorities.
Like-minded people
Since the workplace is a co-working area where different founders and co-founders work on their respective start-up ideas and prepare to launch, you could be bagging many benefits from it. While you share the office resources with the other aspiring entrepreneurs, you get to meet, converse and learn from them. Like you, these people too would be creative, resourceful, problem-solvers and could help you find better use cases of your own product.
Relentless Learning
An incubator can help you learn the A-to-Z of running a successful start-up. Right at the nascent stage of your start-up, the incubator will develop and sharpen your management, leadership, administration, and problem-solving skills through regular workshops and coaching.
Thus an incubator can equip you and your start-up with crucial resources, which otherwise would have been very hard to acquire. Undoubtedly, an incubator has the power to set your start-up on a trajectory that of success. You can leverage the resources made available by the incubator and also apply for funds through them. All you need is to apply to collaborate with an incubator.
We, at Turbine, would love to know about your start-up idea and have you on board. To enquire write to us at hello@turbine.mu.
