“To provide businesses and entrepreneurs with the training, hands-on assistance, mentorship and direction to help them succeed.”—Our Mission

 To incubate start-up businesses within a facility located in Spearfish aligned with Black Hills State University, providing entrepreneurs from the Black Hills region with affordable space, resources, management and mentoring to accelerate their success, creating jobs and revenue for the region.

—Our Vision

What is CBET?
In 2008, BHSU and its College of Business & Technology combined two centers into one, forming the Center for Business, Entrepreneurship & Tourism.

Research: The Center carries forward the legacy of service to the South Dakota community by providing reliable business and tourism research. (Please see Services for a list and description of past research projects.)

Business Assistance for Entrepreneurs: In addition to business research, the Center focuses on the development of Spearfish businesses and businesses in the Black Hills region as its mission. The Center for Business, Entrepreneurship & Tourism seeks to recruit talented entrepreneurs and business people of the region to join the “Emerging Business Network”. This network of aspiring entrepreneurs will be notified of and invited to the many educational business opportunities hosted by both the University as well as the South Dakota Center for Enterprise Opportunity. The SD CEO is the new South Dakota SBA Women’s Business Center, and provides business training seminars on campus as well as delivering them to the rural communities of western South Dakota.

CBET has a Three Phase Plan to create the Northern Black Hills Business Incubator.

What is a Business Incubator? A business incubator is an environment that grows and nurtures small businesses through their early years of existence by providing an array of business assistance services, shared resources, and networking opportunities. Incubator facilities are run by managers and staff who provide business advice and referral services to tenants in addition to managing the operations of the building.

What are the three phases?

Phase I, 2009, consisted of providing training for regional entrepreneurs. (Thank you to those of you who attended the Professional Entrepreneurship Certificate training series this fall!) This phase also included certification training for the Director through the National Business Incubation Association, and certification will be completed in Fall of 2010. Additionally, lots on the BHSU campus were evaluated for the best fit and location for the future incubator.

Phase II, 2010-2011 involves “Proof of Concept” and continued Planning for the proposed Business Incubator. The BHSU Virtual Business Incubator: In 2010, we enrolled three Spearfish businesses in our test pilot “virtual incubator” program: Quik Signs, Four Seasons Coffee, and Black Hills Honey Farm. Check out the webpage! http://www.bhsu.edu/cbet/VirtualIncubator/tabid/9826/Default.aspx Although most incubators offer their clients office space and shared administrative services, the heart of a true business incubation program is the services it provides to start-up companies. More than half of incubation programs surveyed by the National Business Incubation Association in 2006 reported that they also served affiliate or virtual clients. These companies do not reside in the incubator facility. Affiliate clients may be home-based businesses or early-stage companies that have their own premises but can benefit from incubator services. Affiliate and virtual clients may be too remote from an incubation facility to participate on site, and so receive counseling and other assistance electronically. Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for the long term: Historically, 87% of incubator graduates stay in business. Though we do not yet have an incubator in which to offer space for new businesses, we set out to prove that we can apply and rally the resources to assist businesses to success.

EDA (U.S. Economic Development Administration) grant and Business Incubator Planning project: In 2010, CBET was awarded $40,000 by the EDA to assist with a formal community needs assessment for the proposed business incubator and to create a business plan and preliminary budget for same. This project was completed in December. The reports are published here for your reference. (attached above) Business Cluster Development, of Menlo Park, California, conducted the needs assessmentand concluded that our community can support a small mixed-use business incubator. And so, our plans to develop the Northern Black Hills Business Incubator continue! In the meanwhile, we are encouraged to expand our virtual incubator program in the near future as funding and intern resources permit.

Phase III will include the construction of the Northern Black Hills Business Incubator!

“South Dakota has been noted as being very high in business start-ups per capita, but also very low in survival of those business start-ups. This high failure rate indicates a lack of educational training, mentoring, capital resources and acceleration programs.” South Dakota Incubator Alliance-Strategic Plan

 “NBIA members have reported that 84 percent of incubator graduates stay in their communities. Historically, NBIA member incubators have reported that 87 percent of all firms that have graduated from their incubators are still in business.” Source-Business Incubation Works