Marie Johns has seen a few business incubators during her tenure as deputy director of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). She has been to the Beehive in Paris and the Hole in San Francisco.

She hasn’t visited all 1,000 incubators operating in the United States, but she did attend the first anniversary on Nov. 9 of the West Des Moines Business Incubator, where she offered encouragement and SBA support for the business center’s tenants.

The West Des Moines incubator opened in November 2010 at 2829 Westown Parkway. It is managed by the Mid Iowa Small Business Development Center. The idea of an incubator came from city hall – the offices of West Des Moines Community and Economic Development Director Clyde Evans and staff. Evans wanted a way to diversify small business development and job growth.

Evans is on the incubator’s board of directors, which is made up of Greater Des Moines business leaders. In addition to the city of West Des Moines, the center’s sponsors include Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino, the West Des Moines Chamber and Development Connection, West Bank and the Iowa Small Business Development Centers.

Johns said business incubators provide a vital ingredient for the success of independent-minded entrepreneurs, many of whom stalk the business world like alpha wolves looking for new territory to conquer. That ingredient is companionship.

“Being an entrepreneur can be a pretty lonely road,” she said. “There’s not always that opportunity to climb over the cubicle … to collaborate. We need to have these incubator models all over.”

She focused on one business, Ironclad Systems LLC, which specializes in computer repair, network system design and administration for individuals and small businesses.

“What he has done is take a very significant and positive first step, which is to come to the incubator. He hasn’t been here long, but he’s already seen the benefit of this collaboration,” she said of owner Warren McKee.

Being part of the incubator “conveys a Good Housekeeping seal of approval; there’s cachet to being part of this,” Johns said.

McKee said that before coming to the business incubator, Ironclad was near collapse after its two main clients went out of business.

“I came here, I took classes, I developed a business plan, I learned it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be,” he said.

The Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Center provides basic services and instruction, such as how to develop a business plan.

Tenants have Internet access provided by Iowa Network Services Inc., access to training rooms, even a small kitchen. Rents range from $200 to $450 a month.