It was during a dinner with four entrepreneurs when Pam Bishop really saw the need for the Albert Lea Business Development Center.

Bishop and others from the Greater Jobs board of directors had offered the invitation for dinner to the local entrepreneurs to get an idea about what was needed to jump-start job creation in the area.

What was expected to be an hour-long dinner brewed with conversation for more than four hours, as the entrepreneurs bounced ideas back and forth and encouraged each other. The conversation also brought up an idea Greater Jobs had been exploring since 1999: a business incubator.

&uot;We realized that there are so many local entrepreneurs sitting in their basements, garages and sheds who don’t have anyone to share their ideas with,&uot; Bishop, the executive vice president of Greater Jobs, said. &uot;After that dinner, we felt we had an idea of how we could help them.&uot;

A business incubator provides a place where fledgling businesses can rent space and get access to professional advice and shared services to help their business along, with the expectation that they will eventually move out on their own.

Last June, with support from Greater Jobs, the Albert Lea Port Authority and Riverland Community College, as well as other entities, the Albert Lea Business Development Center (ALBDC) opened and began welcoming tenants.

One of the first was Jena Thompson, a chemist who decided to go into business herself making natural soaps. The result was a company called Daisy Blue Naturals.

But the 24-by-24 foot shed in her Geneva backyard wouldn’t do it. She knew she’d need a bigger space.

When she moved into the development center, she was the only employee. Now, she has 13 employees on site, and more than 200 &uot;Mary Kay or Avon-like&uot; sellers in 24 states, stretching as far as Alaska.

Her business has grown quickly.

&uot;I set my expectations pretty high, so I wasn’t too surprised,&uot; she said. &uot;But my goal was to gross $300,000 in my first full year. We exceeded that, making $450,000.&uot;

The center takes in a business after a three-step applications process, which involves submitting a business plan and doing a sit-down interview with board members to go even further in-depth on the business plan. Finally, if passed, an individual agreement is made with the company.

The tenants pay a cheap rental rate at first, which increases incrementally over the period through which the company grows.

&uot;We are more than just a physical space, though,&uot; Bishop said. She explained that helping tenants to connect with local business owners, network, find clients and attend seminars are all elements of the incubator.

For Randy Fett, the president and founder of Buffalo Bill’s Bison Products, which makes stock products for soups, gravies and other products, said the ALBDC brought him to the same realization the four entrepreneurs from that first dinner had reached in their table conversation.

&uot;I used to think I was the only one who thought the way I did,&uot; Fett said.

He’d gotten the idea for Buffalo stock after working for Hormel Foods for many years in their soup stock division. He pursued the idea with the company, but that didn’t catch on. He decided to go it alone, but wasn’t sure how to do that. After talking with consultants, he got his business up and running. He had a place to grind the buffalo bone and a place to package his product, but no place to store it. That’s when he contacted the incubator.

&uot;I needed a place that would be reliable, a place with rent that wasn’t overly expensive,&uot; he said.

The center has two other tenants, as well: Aquila Corporation, which makes advanced, adjustable wheelchair cushions, and INGLOW, Inc., which produces candles that glow from electricty instead of fire.

Bishop said that helping people get from an idea or a beginning to stability in the market is the point of the center. Furthermore, it is to do that for local people, knowing that 70 percent of all economic development comes from business that either starts or already exists in a community, Bishop said.

The ALBDC has a five-year goal for each company, hoping to bring the company to a point when they can have the stability to move out of the center.

The other part of that goal, Bishop says, is keeping the company local.

But, that part isn’t as hard after the five years.

Both Fett and Thompson are from the area. They have family here and are based here. Each said that the center helped them to network with local business owners, so their ties become local after the five years.

Fett and Thompson both said they plan on staying if their business will allow.

&uot;I can’t say (staying in Albert Lea) would for sure happen,&uot; Fett said. &uot;But my heart is here in Albert Lea. Would I like to keep Buffalo Bill’s in this area? Yes I would.&uot;