The number of businesses being started in the U.S. has more than doubled during the past decade, with well over 520,000 new business incorporations during the first nine months of 1988 alone. 

But the percentage of those that survive has remained the same (according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) or declined (according to Dun & Bradstreet).  Either way, business start-ups are facing tough odds nationwide.  According to the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), 80 percent of all new small firms opened in 1988 will fail by 1993 -- out of money or energy or both.

Is there any way for entrepreneurs to combat these statistics?  One increasingly popular economic support tool is the business incubator which, as the name implies, is a place designed to foster the growth of small companies.  Studies have documented that legitimate incubators increase their tenant companies' chances of success to between 80 and 93 percent (compared with 20 percent in the general economy) -- a considerable enticement for a start-up endeavor.

Three examples: The Fulton-Carroll Center for Industry in Chicago had 129 tenants in its first seven years of operation -- only 14 didn't make it.  And, according to Pryde, Roberts and Associates, a national consulting firm, of 556 small firms housed in 13 incubators, only 13 failed after moving out on their own.  Finally, Control Data, a pioneer in business incubation development in partnership with local
governments, has tracked the tenant companies in its licensee incubators since 1979 and found that only nine percent have folded; 91 percent are going strong.

Excerpted with permission from Small Business Success Magazine, produced by Pacific Bell Directory in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration.