When I think of an incubator, I picture sweet babies lined up in the pediatric ward waiting for their families to peek in the window. The Clarionledger.com recently featured an incubator in Mississippi, but it has nothing to do with babies.

The incubator they described is a place where business professionals share office space with other professionals in different fields. The Jackson County Small Business Incubator, now with eight tenants, has been so successful that they’re opening a second location.

Incubators are similar to various co-working sites that I described in another post. The main difference is that the purpose of incubators is to help an individual grow his or her business, instead of just providing a place to work away from the family. There are a few more benefits to incubators:

• You’re encouraged to network with your “incubator neighbor” and maybe even work together on projects or hire one another. One business professional is considering hiring his neighbor to design a new Web site for him.

• Incubators offer high-speed copiers, printers and other equipment that a typical home office professional can’t afford at the beginning.

• You can’t get lonely in an incubator. There are too many people around.

• You can still keep your home office but as your business grows, an incubator is the perfect place to work with other business owners who are much quieter than your kids and barking dog.