DOUGLAS - Earlier this year, Edwin Bayse decided it was time to get serious about finding a good job.

Mayor Ray Borane is on hand for the dedication of a new name and renovated store front for the Border Business, Resource Center.

"I had been just kind of surviving, with very little income and dwindling savings," the Douglas-area resident said. "I decided I needed to do something."

After some friends recommended that his IT background might make Bayse well-suited for a career in Web site design, he began to think about starting his own firm. With that plan in mind, he attended a small business expo in Douglas in February where he met Ana Varela, project manager at the microbusiness incubator Border Business Resource Center.

Varela's pitch was a convincing one: Bayse could start his new business at the BBRC's downtown location and receive three months of free rent. He also would get free Internet access and access to the facility's shared fax machine, kitchen, conference room and support staff.

The offer was too good to refuse, and so Bayse bought himself a computer, set it up at a cubicle at the BBRC, and launched his Sites That Grow Web site development business.

The BBRC, previously known as the Douglas Business Incubator Center, formally inaugurated its new name and improved facility Wednesday after a two-year renovation project at its G Avenue storefront.

It already has five tenants and has created 12 new jobs for the local economy, organizers say.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Varela explained that a business incubator operates on a similar principle to an agricultural incubator.

The difference, she said, is that instead of livestock, "we're providing an essential environment where businesses can grow."

By taking care of day-to-day issues like utility payments and facility maintenance, Varela said, the BBRC hopes to allow entrepreneurs the chance to focus their energy on the most important task at hand: getting their new small business of the ground.

"Of course," she added, "our goal is for them to graduate (from the BBRC)," and so all tenants are expected to move into their own office space after one year at the center.

John Arnold, CEO and founder of Portable Practical Educational Preparation, which, along with the University of Arizona South, worked to secure federal grant money for the BBRC renovation, noted that more than half of all jobs in the United States are at businesses with five or fewer employees.

Microbusinesses, he said, "are really the engine of our economy" and can have especially positive effects on depressed rural economies, such as those along the Arizona-Sonora border.

Incubators such as the BBRC, he said, "are not only creating jobs, they are creating businesses."

That was good news to Douglas Mayor Ray Borane.

"Anything that relates to creating jobs and helping the economy of this community is always welcome," he said.

One organization that is already creating jobs from within the BBRC is the Southeastern Arizona Institute of Healthcare Technology, a nonprofit group that promotes public health in the Douglas area.

The company was formed six months ago by CEO Jerry Ramirez and now has five employees.

As a startup company, the institute has benefited from the BBRC's low rent and ample space.

Ramirez and his partners have set up one of the center's large rooms as a training center, complete with two hospital beds, a medical dummy and a classroom area.

"It's a big help to us because we are able to stay cost effective," Ramirez said of the BBRC facility.

In addition to space and infrastructure, the BBRC also offers loans to small businesses like Ramirez's through the PPEP Microbusiness and Housing Development Corporation.

"I'd recommend (the BBRC) to anyone who's ever had a dream of opening their own business," Ramirez said.