• Home
• Introduction
  • Purpose of Incubation
  • Mission Statement
  • Benefits of Membership
  • Bio
• Facilities
  • Pictures
  • Floor Plan
  • Telecom Package
• Services
• Application Process
• Expectations
• Guided Access Program
• Entrepreneur Institute
• Why Here?
• Incubator Partners
• Professional Advisors
• News & Events
• Participating Businesses
• Contact Us

Guided Access Program

The Guided Access Program (GAP™) is the system for your business success — graduation from The Incubator in three to five years.

Entrepreneur Start-Up Planning
Phase I in the Guided Access Program (GAP™) is business start-up planning and occurs either prior to admission to The Incubator or during early occupancy. This phase identifies all planning elements required to complete a business plan – the milestone to complete Phase I. SCORE counselors, SBDC counselors, and other mentors assist entrepreneurs in early business development stages. As applicable to each business, counselors explore the entrepreneur’s idea, help refine/define the business or product, evaluate technical feasibility, determine product development requirements and identify core competencies.

Counselors facilitate all aspects of business planning required to create a business plan, define key business performance benchmarks and formulate a three-year operating budget; however, the entrepreneur assumes responsibility for all due diligence tasks. When an entrepreneur completes a business plan and application, the Director convenes a GAP Review Board meeting to review and assess the business opportunity.
With the Director's support, the entrepreneur presents the business plan to the GAP Board for approval and acceptance. Upon review, the GAP Board can recommend acceptance to The Incubator, additional research for the business plan, creation of a strategy/presentation to obtain capital resources or reject the business plan based on poor feasibility or poor strategic fit with The Incubator's mission. If approved, the entrepreneur works with The Incubator Director to formalize the lease documents and prepare plans for potential funding sources.

Seed Stage
Phase II begins implementation of the business plan created in Phase I. New businesses enter the second GAP™ phase through Phase I graduation or direct admission through GAP Board approval. Regardless of a business' admission path to Phase II, The Incubator's stipulation is that the entrepreneur has a completed business plan and requires funding and/or additional resources. In this phase, the entrepreneur conducts all identified activities required for primary business development – the Phase II milestone. Upon acceptance to The Incubator, initial activities include defining office space and requirements, finalizing a lease agreement, programming the telecommunications package and setting furniture, fixtures and equipment in place.

The Director guides the entrepreneur through creating a business structure, applying for small business and state certifications, applying for product licensing/patents, and determining software requirements by coordinating efforts with internal and external professional advisors. Other operational activities that need to occur may include hiring and training staff, developing policies and procedures and defining inventory requirements.Once an operation is in place, the next and most important focus in this phase is customer and supplier contacts.As part of this segment, the entrepreneur needs to design a company logo and develop marketing and promotional materials. The Director assists with coordinating outside professional advisors.

Prepared with marketing and promotional materials, the entrepreneur further develops target markets and suppliers by monitoring competitor websites, contacting customers and suppliers directly and attending conferences and trade shows. At this stage, the entrepreneur should seek to build strategic partnerships identified in the business plan, as well as be alert to new opportunities to develop strategic teaming relationships, partnerships, or joint ventures.

Using the Phase II timeline established by the Director and entrepreneur, the GAP Review Board reviews the benchmarks set for business development. If the entrepreneur achieves the performance goals, the Board can recommend a funding review. If the company demonstrates adequate funding, it will advance to Phase III; otherwise, the Board may request the entrepreneur to seek additional funding or leave. If a business misses performance goals, the Board can request the entrepreneur to continue its business development function with assistance from the Director. If the entrepreneur cannot meet performance criteria after reasonable attempts, the Board may request the entrepreneur leave to make room for other new business ventures.

Product Launch
In the product launch phase, the primary objective is to generate sales – the Phase III milestone. New businesses enter the third GAP phase through Phase II graduation or direct admission through GAP Board approval. For an entrepreneur to enter the GAP process at Phase III without going through Phases I and II, he/she must provide a business plan, demonstrate adequate funding, operate as a business, and confirm a willing customer base. The primary focus in this phase of business plan implementation is to generate sales; however, it becomes critical to monitor the impact initial sales have in other functional areas. Businesses need to implement reporting systems for sales, marketing, finance, operations and materials management for monitoring purposes. A small miscalculation in pricing, cost of goods sold, operating expense, market size, actual sales or inventory management can have significant negative impact as the business grows.

If a company implements and reviews good management reports early in its life cycle, it can minimize negative or maximize positive impact to its bottom line. As the business continues to generate sales, other areas to develop include identifying and implementing best practices, evaluating resources and managing day-to-day operations. Resource allocation can become a significant management-balancing act. While an entrepreneur may initially function in many areas, he/she must recognize their own individual capacity and skill set limitations. Forecasting revenue recognition and revenue stability to align with hiring and training key employees is as much art form as it is a quantitative process. However, maintaining adequate resources as a business grows is imperative.

Once the company becomes a competitor in the marketplace, outside factors can influence performance such as changes in the economy, changes in competition and new technologies in the marketplace. Entrepreneurs need to devote time and energy on designing tools and methods to monitor these areas on a regular basis. Using the Phase III timeline established by the Director, Advisors and the entrepreneur, the GAP Board reviews the benchmarks set for growth and sales. If the entrepreneur achieves performance goals, the Board can recommend a funding review.

If the company demonstrates adequate funding, it will advance to Phase IV; otherwise, the Board may request the entrepreneur to seek additional funding or leave. If a business misses performance goals, the Board can request the entrepreneur to review its sales efforts with assistance from the Director. If the entrepreneur cannot meet criteria after reasonable attempts, the GAP Review Board may ask the entrepreneur to leave to make room for other new business ventures.

Expansion
The primary goal of the Expansion phase is the accelerated growth of plans and markets set in the Product Launch phase. The entrepreneur will expand identify additional attractive markets to enter, position its product to meet the market demands and contact potential customers. Additionally, the company will be fine tuning and improving efficiencies of the operations in respect to, customer service, billing and cash flow, product distribution, delivery and quality assurance.

Using the Phase IV timeline established by the Director, Advisors and the entrepreneur, the GAP Board reviews the benchmarks set for growth and sales. If the entrepreneur achieves performance goals, the Board can recommend a graduation to the successful venture stage. If the company demonstrates adequate and stable sales growth, it will advance to Phase V; otherwise, the Board may request the entrepreneur to stabilize its sales and product base or leave.

If a business misses performance goals, the Board can request the entrepreneur to review its sales efforts with assistance from the Director. If the entrepreneur cannot meet criteria after reasonable attempts, the Board may ask the entrepreneur to leave to make room for other new business ventures.

Successful Venture
This stage of the GAP focuses on activities conducted by successful, viable businesses that still require professional support and services from The Incubator. Companies entering Phase V may be graduating from Phase IV, or they may be existing businesses that have been operational for years, have become stagnant, and need new ways to grow. For an entrepreneur to enter the GAP process at Phase V without going through Phases I, II, III and IV, the business must show a history of successful, profitable business operations. The milestone for Phase V is for the business to graduate into the community as a viable and sustainable concern.

While the business resides in this incubator phase, the entrepreneur has an opportunity to continue growing operations and to review and streamline processes. For relatively new businesses (less than three years in operation), expansion can be accomplished by researching/adding product line extensions, adding new products, expanding into new markets, identifying new customer types or opening a regional office; many strategies exist. A business should assess the strategic alternative that makes the most sense from a market needs perspective and evaluate that strategy in a detailed plan.

For established businesses, a major consideration in identifying elements that drive growth in established businesses is to assess if underlying causes exist for flat or declining growth.

• Is business stagnant due to new technologies replacing current product(s)?
• Is the lack of product/service demand because of a shrinking customer base/target market?
• Are more competitors competing for the same market?
• Have competitors increased market share leaving others with smaller pieces to share; if so, why?
• Is the business continuing to meet the needs of its existing market so it won’t lose customers during the expansion process?
• How will expansion affect existing resources like financing, staffing and timing?™

Entrepreneurs need to ask and answer these questions plus many more.

The Director coordinates GAP Board members, advisors or external professional service providers to work with the business owner, so the business owner understands current industry outlook and determines the best solutions to grow the business. During this phase, the entrepreneur should:

• Evaluate business processes for best practices and complete documentation that details best practices for all functional areas
• Conduct an operational review for cost saving measures that position the business for longer, improved profitability.
• Ensure management reports accurately reflect business, and staff reviews reports in a timely manner; reaffirm reporting channels through the organization.
• The entrepreneur should also use this time to engage the Director in assisting with identification and selection of the best available space and location that satisfies the business’ need.

When the Director, the GAP Review Board, and the entrepreneur determine the business achieved its Phase V performance goals, the business graduates from the Incubator into the community.