Center for Entreprenuerial Creativity

VISION:

Our vision is to create a beehive of activity; a center for entrepreneurial creativity; a centerpiece for the community; a center of learning; and a place for social activity.

MISSION:

 The Immokalee Business Development center is a  learning laboratory for entrepreneurial enterprises.

The Immokalee Business Development Center (IBDC) facilitates the growth and development of businesses in the community.  The IBDC is a no-cost program that provides existing and emerging businesses with technical assistance and an array of business resources.    Forget what you know about business development centers, sometimes called business incubators.   IBDC is nothing like traditional incubators.  It is not static, confined to a warehouse or necessarily restricted to any one place or time.  In fact, IBDC,  will soon become known as the incubator without walls.  The staff provides personalize services both onsite (at the business location) and offsite (the IBDC office).

 “Our goal is to be as helpful as possible to new and energetic entrepreneurs,” explained Penny Phillippi, Executive Director of the Immokalee CRA.   “To be truly helpful we have to take our resources to the new business owners,” she said. “Meet them where they need help the most. We have to break down the walls and barriers that tend to confine and restrict entrepreneurial effort and allow the new businesses to flourish on their own terms, in organic ways.”  IBDC  is  a learning laboratory for bright and energetic business developers.  It is a center for entrepreneurial creativity and becomes a center of learning.  

The partnership will extend well beyond the CRA and IBDC itself to the many resources available already in Immokalee to meet the technical assistance needs of IBDC clients.  Relationships with universities, technical schools, governmental agencies and other entities that currently exist can be further developed for the benefit of IBDC clients.