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Guide to Visitors
(Please contact the business office to schedule your visit: 713.932.7495)
SCA and the business incubators have hosted economic development professionals and incubator managers
from across the nation and around the world. We welcome your questions.

You start any Wednesday at the Services Cooperative Association (SCA) Houston CrossRoads Business Building Breakfast meeting which is conducted from 7:15 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. The meeting is followed by open networking until 9:00 a.m. and then by the SCA Chapter Officer Debriefing from 9:00 until 9:30.

You are supplied with the Program, Program Agenda, Debriefing Checklist and a copy of the video made at the meeting so that you may replicate the Business Building Breakfast model in your service area as a means of collecting and pre-qualifying prospects and advisors for your incubator.

Next, you travel to The Center, 9517 Long Point Road (approximately 10 miles from the CrossRoads Business Building Breakfast site) and convene at 10:00 a.m. From 10:00 a.m. until noon, you discuss the procedures used for incubator operations and the contracts between Incubator/Client, Incubator/Advisor Mentor and Advisor Mentor/Client. (3 contracts.) You are also provided with the Incubator Participant (Client) Handbook, the "Guide to Advisors," the "Guide to Mentors" and the "Summary of Exit Interviews" (data collected from Clients completing the Incubator Program).

Lunch is taken from noon until approximately 1:30 p.m. Your options are to join us for lunch to continue questions and answers, take lunch on your own or accompany us to a luncheon meeting of a local business networking group (not always available and they frequently run over the allocated time requiring us to depart early).

You return to The Center for an Entrepreneurial Assessment (a highly refined and very accurate tool for prospect screening/client selection) of a prospective incubator client from 1:30 p.m. until about 4:30 p.m. The duration of the Assessment varies case-by-case and can run from 2.5 hours to 5 hours in length. You are given the Assessment Summary, a copy of the video made of the Assessment and instructions on how to evaluate the Assessment and the prospective client. (It is not always possible to have an Assessment scheduled on the day of your visit. When no client prospect is available, you become the client candidate and the Assessment is conducted with your parameters as the variables. Given you as client candidate, you may return at a future date for an actual prospect Assessment at no additional fee.)

The Advisory Board Meeting dinner commences at 6:00 p.m. at The Center. (Unfilled time from the conclusion of the Assessment until the start of the Advisory Board Meeting can range between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. Your options are to take open time for any personal needs, meet with the Center Manager to discuss billings/collection procedures or meet with any of the Advisors for questions and answers.)  Advisory Board meetings are only conducted from 6:30 p.m. until approximately 10:00 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month. Should you plan your visit on a day other than the second Wednesday, you may return to a subsequent meeting at no additional charge. You are given a copy of the video made of the meeting and copies of the various Advisory Board Summaries.

To participate, we must have your payment of $2,500.00, your bio and a signed copy of the non-disclosure agreement in our office before noon of the Friday preceding the second Wednesday. Should you be unable to meet this deadline, please call C. Dean Kring, Director of Research at (713) 932-7495, to see what other arrangements may be made.

Should you wish mentoring or consulting services before or after your visit to The Center, Mr. Kring is available at the rate of $250.00 per hour with a $1,000 retainer requested. To arrange payment, click here.

Mr. Kring is recognized by the National Business Incubation Association "as a pioneer and industry leader in business incubation." He is, in fact, the most tenured incubator owner/operator/manager in the United States, having operated the Entrepreneurial Development Center in Houston, continuously since 1985 entirely without grants, donations, contributions or public funding.

"I want to thank you most sincerely for your prompt and generous response to our request for information and documentation on your incubator program. We truly appreciate your willingness to share with your colleagues for the betterment of our industry. We acknowledge your leadership role and want to say how much we value your support."

Yours sincerely,

Dinah Adkins
Executive Director
National Business Incubation Association

"You handled all our questions and probings with much patience and thoroughness."

Yeboa Amoa
Managing Director
Ghana Stock Exchange

We've gone virtual. Should you wish information, please call 713.932.7495 or email service@servicesca.org

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