Managing Editor
Jackie Perry came to the new Beaver Street Enterprise Center in 2003 as a receptionist who wanted to incubate her own company.
With a background in management, human resources, operations and experience working with CEOs, she became program coordinator and then took over in 2005 when the inaugural executive director returned to his banking job.
“It’s a perfect fit, and I love it,” she said from her offices just off Beaver Street and Interstate 95.
FreshMinistries and Core City Business Incubators Inc. developed the center as a full-service business incubator to help startup ventures with their growth plans.
The center offers onsite technical assistance that includes peer-group mentoring, referrals, workshops and mentoring. It works with partners that include the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the University of North Florida Small Business Development Center, the First Coast African American Chamber of Commerce and other organizations that can assist the companies.
The tenants can stay from one to three years, after which they graduate and move on. Since 2003, nine companies have graduated, collectively creating about 100 jobs and $20 million in revenues, she said.
Over the last few years, Perry said the center has served 35 clients, including the incubator companies and affiliated companies. Those are primarily home-based and sole proprietors who come to the center for seminars, workshops, part-time use of office space and other services.
Perry soon will have another building and set of programs to manage. FreshMinistries is expanding the incubator to serve “Stage 2,” or what Perry calls “G-2,” businesses. A warehouse across the street is being rebuilt to house the new programs and should be completed in the first quarter next year, she said.
Born in Gainesville, Perry grew up on Jacksonville’s Eastside and graduated from Andrew Jackson High School.
Instead of a formal college degree, she earned certification in human resources and spent her first career with Prudential HealthCare and Aetna, which bought the health care company. In December 1998, Aetna and The Prudential Insurance Co. of America announced an agreement for Aetna to acquire the Prudential HealthCare business. The acquisition was completed the next year.
During Perry’s time there, she started in dental claims and then moved into supervisory and management positions, and then into human resources and training, including working with CEOs. She also served on the re-engineering team for the acquisition transition.
Around 2001-02, she was “downsized” at the same time her son, one of her four children, graduated from UNF with a degree in motion graphics. She enrolled at what is now Florida State College at Jacksonville for her certification in graphic design and web development. (She and two sons separately run a multimedia and web development company that ended up taking root outside the incubator to avoid conflicts.)
Her pastor was invited to the formative meetings for Beaver Street Enterprise Center and told her to check it out. She bargained with the manager to use space in return for helping out, including helping to write policies.
She went from receptionist to program coordinator to executive director.
“I came here to open a business,” she said. “It is kind of ironic. Beaver Street has been that business and I am also afforded an opportunity to enjoy the rewards and challenges of business ownership vicariously through the other companies.”
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