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primarily in Ramsey, but they may be able to utilize the kitchen incubator as an expansion opportunity. National restaurant incubators Current Incubators: To carry out a nationwide survey and analysis, around 650 shared commercial kitchens/ food incubators were identified across the country and information like mailing address, email address, respective websites and most importantly their kitchen descriptions were assembled in a file. The kitchen descriptions include kitchen capacity, available amenities like ovens, burners and others, rental rates and hours among much useful information. Responses to the surveys for this category have been positive and very useful. It was found that for incubators it is difficult to provide the high capital investment that is required for the initial development. It is found that it is very challenging to make a profit and many of the incubators were losing money in the initial years of the business. Regulatory policies were another common reason that proved challenging for some of the respondents. Challenges identified by restaurant incubators currently in existence ranged from the difficulty of operating while generating enough revenue to meet ongoing expenses, to engaging and becoming engrained within the community the incubator serves. Square One Kitchens, which operates in Fargo, North Dakota, listed the following points as key obstacles in operation of a food incubator: • Helping the community understand what a shared kitchen is and how it works (this concept is much different than a standard food business so it seemed to confuse people) • Finding a space that would fit the needs of the business • Investment — it cost quite a bit to get this [Square One Kitchens] up and running with the equipment, fit up, etc... • Only had one built-in client prior to starting. The beginning phase was very stressful as [we] had to wait for clients to be ready to start their business and utilize Square One. The Cauldron Kitchen, operating from Ottawa, Canada, per their website is a shared commercial kitchen service for catering, food businesses, bakeries, personal chefs, and culinary classes. Having been in business for 2+ years as of the time of the interview, the Cauldron had this to say regarding obstacles: • The obstacles to start the business were finding a suitable commercial lease location with appropriate services (electrical, sewage gas) • A shared commercial kitchen requires a little more than what a restaurant needs because it has multiple pieces of equipment 15