Ideas, the saying goes, are "a dime a dozen," but in New Haven, home of some of history's most inventive thinkers and innovators, ideas have often proven to be invaluable.

The cotton gin and the modern manufacturing process invented by Yale alumnus and New Haven resident Eli Whitney, for example, revolutionized American life. Other, more recent, Yale discoveries and inventions in science, medicine, engineering and other fields have also dramatically changed people's lives.

At the newly established Enterprise Center, innovative ideas are not only valued but are invited.

The Enterprise Center, a partnership between Yale, United Illuminating Company (UI) and New Haven Savings Bank, helps budding entrepreneurs from Yale and beyond turn their ideas for new products, services and businesses into a commercial reality.

Located at 433 Temple St. next to Yale's Office of New Haven and State Affairs, the not-for-profit entity assists entrepreneurs, start-up companies and other small businesses build successful enterprises in New Haven. The center is staffed by professionals in business management, who work closely with experts -- including corporate specialists from UI, New Haven Savings Bank, Yale's Office of Cooperative Research, and students and faculty from the Yale School of Management and other professional schools at Yale and in the New Haven area -- to assist businesses in a variety of industries. The Enterprise Center provides such consulting services as stategic business planning, market research, financial structuring, capital source development and management assistance.

"This partnership will help realize the great potential for economic development in Southern Connecticut," noted President Richard C. Levin when The Enterprise Center was started several months ago. "The creation of jobs and a strong tax base is one of the most important ways Yale can make New Haven even stronger."

Yale's partnership for this endeavor with the two private-sector companies is unique, according to Bruce Alexander, vice president and director of the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, who chairs The Enterprise Center's board of directors.

"The center is an enterprise catalyst," he explains. "Its activities are specifically targeted to promote economic growth in Greater New Haven by attracting and retaining businesses and jobs in the region and enhancing the region's knowledge base."

Nathaniel Woodson '63 B.E., chief executive officer of UI, adds: "This innovative partnership between Yale, United Illuminating Company and New Haven Savings Bank is a natural outgrowth of all three institutions' longstanding commitment to the economic health of New Haven, which, until now, each of us has pursued independently. We recognized that our shared community -- which has such great potential for successful new enterprises -- could benefit greatly from such an alliance, which allows us to pool our resources and the expertise of our talented staffs."

According to John Lang, director of The Enterprise Center, in its first few months the program has already consulted with some 30 clients who have proposals for new business ventures in industries as diverse as biotechnology, information technology, environmental cleanup, finance, retail and manufacturing.

"Our clients have come with business concepts at various stages, some very well developed and with substantial start-up funding in place and others that are still in the very early planning phase," Lang says. "A focus, this summer, for example, has been to introduce The Enterprise Center to members of the Yale faculty who have entrepreneurial dreams to transform into substantial business enterprises."

While clients must meet certain criteria to qualify for assistance, such as initial financing for their business' early development, Lang says the center does introduce clients to "experienced capital sources that are looking to make seed or other early-stage loans and equity investments."

Furthermore, he adds, "We don't like to decline anyone's proposal, so if someone comes forward with an idea that isn't yet viable, we can refer him or her to people elsewhere who might be able to further help the client along in developing the idea or concept. Our goal is always to help nurture creative ideas."

The Enterprise Center is also a valuable resource for already-established companies looking to relocate in New Haven, according to Lang, who has served in senior positions in several investment banking firms and as vice president and treasurer of Aetna Life and Casualty in Hartford.

The City of of New Haven is a desirable and potentially prosperous site for small businesses, according to Richard Probert, an associate at The Enterprise Center who is also a second-year student at the Yale School of Management.

"The Wall Street Journal recently reported that New Haven has the second highest concentration of high-tech jobs in the country, right behind San Jose, California," Probert notes. In addition, in a survey cited in Business Week four months ago, the New Haven-Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury-Waterbury metropolitan area was selected as the third "most desirable" area in the country to earn and save money, he says. (The winning areas were chosen for the combination of high household income, high job quality and low unemployment, among other factors.) And the New Haven/Meriden area placed second in New England -- just behind Boston -- in a Forbes magazine ranking of America's best places for businesses and careers.

Entrepreneurs in need of nurturing and support as they begin their businesses in New Haven can also draw on the "tremendous brain power" of The Enterprise Center's corps of experienced volunteers in the region, Probert says.

"With several institutions of higher learning in such close proximity -- as well as the specialists at such well-grounded institutions as The New Having Savings Bank and United Illuminating -- New Haven certainly has a lot to offer in the way of great minds," states Probert, whose responsibilities at The Enterprise Center include recruiting business-savvy student volunteers at the Yale School of Management and other professional schools to assist the center in its mission. "Our clients can really take advantage of that."

Probert adds that with the support of his colleagues at The Enterprise Center and the business wisdom of its many volunteers, enterprising dreamers can feel less fearful of some of the hurdles they must face as they attempt to apply their ideas in the business world.

"It's easy to have a dream, but many, many dreams go unfulfilled if people don't have the tools to realize them," Probert says. "That's what we're here for, to help bring those enterprising ideas and visions to life."

In addition to Alexander and Woodson, The Enterprise Center's board of directors includes Charles L. Terrell, president and treasurer of New Haven Savings Bank; Paul McCraven, vice president of New Haven Savings Bank; Robert Mills, UI's director of economic development; Stanley J. Gartska, deputy dean and professor in the practice of management at the Yale School of Management; and Jonathan Soderstrom, director of the Office of Cooperative Research.

All applications for assistance from The Enterprise Center are confidential. For further information, call 432-7546, or visit the center's website at http://enterprisecenter.som.yale.edu/enterprisecenter.

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