The paper focuses on ten years of development of business incubators in Poland. The first concepts of incubators appeared independently in 1990. Since the beginning of the 1990s, a total of 64 incubators have been established, from among which 44 are still active at the beginning of 2001. In total, approximately 1077 entities have operated in Polish business incubators creating 6503 jobs. Over 700 firms, creating 3200 jobs have already left incubators and are developing very dynamically. The development of business incubators and other institutions of economic support is a success attributable to local societies and those directly connected with particular initiatives. Such institutions contribute to a new quality in the local environment, stimulate local society, transfer new experiences and external support and, most of all, assist people in realising their business plans.