UNC Pembroke incubator offers hope for rural economy

This could be a really big deal for our region. And maybe for the rest of rural North Carolina too.

UNC Pembroke's new Entrepreneurship Incubator opens for business today - and that may mean business for a part of the state that desperately needs it.

The incubator, in the works for several years now, is designed to support startup businesses by offering them operating space, consulting services, workshops and seminars, mentoring and networking assistance.

The incubator is funded by $1.2 million in grants from the U.S. Commerce Department and the Golden Leaf Foundation, and by gifts from private donors. It's located in a 17,000-square-foot building on Main Street in Pembroke.

The incubator is itself an entrepreneurial project, tying together resources from UNCP's Thomas Family Center for Entrepreneurship and the School of Business as well as the state's Small Business and Technology Development Center. It's also partnering with InnovateNC at NC State University and NCGrowth at UNC Chapel Hill.

Incubator Director James Woods says the project offers help with marketing, accounting, financing, human resources and other puzzles that startup business owners often struggle to solve.

It offers three kinds of memberships to businesses: Full membership with dedicated office space, affiliate membership with flexible office space, and virtual membership - online connection that brings access to educational and consulting services.

The incubator will serve a 10-county area, stretching from the Sandhills to the coast. That region includes some of the state's most battered rural economies and highest unemployment rates.

While state economic-development initiatives have brought waves of new business to our big urban areas - especially the Triangle, Triad and Charlotte - rural economic development is largely a dismal picture. The rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.

UNC Pembroke officials believe entrepreneurship may be a key to reviving the rural region's financial fortunes. If it goes no further than reviving Pembroke itself, it will be a success.

But if it can have a real regional impact, then it will become a formula that may well be exported to other state universities serving rural areas.

We're excited about the Entrepreneurship Incubator's possibilities and wish it great success.