For some newborn babies, adjusting to life in the outside world can be tough.

That's where incubators come in.

And what works for babies can also work for small, struggling businesses. That's the theory behind the business incubator, which will soon be tried out in Homestead, where many businesses have suffered since Hurricane Andrew.

The Homestead Business Incubator will be unveiled at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Miami-Dade Community College, Homestead Campus, in the Community Room, A-114, in Building A.

The presentation is aimed at telling business owners what the incubator is and how it can help them. The idea has some city officials excited.

''It is truly going to help Homestead,'' said city spokesman Charles LePradd.

An incubation center is a building where several small businesses are run.

Its clients are people starting out in business, and looking for a bit of help.

David Kershaw, 48, who lives in Melbourne, is the director of the Florida/NASA Business Incubation Center in Titusville. It was established by the Florida Technological Research and Development Authority in 1996, and NASA is a partner.

''We provide business assistance to the clients. We connect them to people such as accountants and lawyers and provide shared services such as phone, Internet and copy machines,'' Kershaw said. ``By getting so much help, the clients can get down to business and reduce the cost and hassle.''

Clients must sign a lease that usually runs from six months to one year.

A key point is to make the leases flexible and the space affordable.

All business takes place in the facility, and the whole process usually takes no more than three years, depending on how well the business does.

Either way, the goal of the business is to eventually graduate from the incubator and go its own way.

And research has shown that 80 percent of the businesses that have started out in incubators have succeeded.

George Guo, who lives in Orlando, is the general manager of the Z Facilitators, and he has been using the incubator for almost a year now.

Before he signed up for help, his business was not been doing so well.

Now, though, Guo says he is getting the kind of help he has always needed.

''In the real business environment, things are so expensive when you start out, but the incubator gives us the opportunity to stay without these concerns,'' Guo said.