Need Cash? So do I. Many websites and articles have been devoted to Government Grants and various federal and state financial funding programs. Grants from these programs do not have to be repaid. Sounds great in theory, but, for me, that also brings up a couple more questions – If it’s that easy why do thousands of dollars go unclaimed in this type of assistance each year? And why don’t I know anyone who’s ever got a federal loan for their business?!
Evidently, after a little analysis (and a lot of espresso!) apparently the only real answer to the question is that people are simply unaware of the actual programs available or that they don’t know how to make the most of them. Understandable, the bureaucratic bungling of the federal government can’t also be expected to figure out a decent marketing campaign now can they? – it would be all just way too much work. Plus, the majority of people don’t know how to make an application for them anyway nor possess the time to carry out all of the tedious research to locate what they are looking for. But Nonetheless, If all of this capital is going unclaimed – precisely why don’t I just jump on it? In fact, if it’s that simple… surely the news would have spread well before now. And so, what is the real truth about government business grants? The great news seems to be that they are without a doubt real and thanks to the entrepreneurial attitude of the government’s innovative open-door policies, they may not be extremely challenging to track down if you know where to look. And that’s a crazy big “IF”! the not-so-good part is that: The exact federal government websites where there’re listed are so inadequately kept that they consist of about one-tenth at best of the actual programs available and of those most are years out-dated and don’t exist anymore. This challenge on it’s own happens to be about as frustrating as being stuck in traffic. So here is what i discovered: The majority of grants available to privately owned companies are financed by federal government entities; after all, they are the ones with access to the press which prints the money. Generally, profit-focussed enterprises are usually not qualified to apply for grants through charities or community foundations. Even with “free” government grant money,there’s really never a free lunch (unless its a grant for free lunches). They’re not actually giving away capital. They expect to see something of value for it like research, job creation, work performed, and so on. In fact, in america some government funding programs call for “corresponding funds”. A quick search for opportunities offered to small businesses (businesses with less than 500 staff) returned 587 available offers inside the United states in addition to 4 hundred+ in australia. So, what is the possibility of discovering a federal grant to develop your retail store? On one hand, slim. On the other side , in the event you could possibly rationalise that your store could easily turn into a regional tourist magnet – almost certainly incredibly high. More advantageous yet, if you can demonstrate that you will develop work opportunities for the local college drop-outs flipping burgers in a low-income area – The money may be presented to you on a gold plate. Furthermore, if your expansion entails recruiting the homeless, work re-training, , , smog decline, or a myriad of initiatives our government has zeroed in on within the worldwide effort to restore the pre-Global Financial Crisis (GFC) economic climate you may just be qualified for your slice of the pie. If you really enjoy doing lots of paperwork (and if you have already got a company, you’re already used to it – or you might be good at palming it off to your assistant), recurrent hold-up’s, and a lot of lines of impossible-to-understand fineprint, here’s a quick guide to the time-consuming procedure of finding grant money for your company:
1. Should you qualify to receive any special small business designation – for instance minority-owned business enterprise or organization woman-operated company, or veteran-owned company – commence the accreditation process straight away . In most instances, it will give you selection over non-qualified businesses.
2. Bring together your resources. Yes, you’ll want to have your Tax File Number and business registration particulars nearby.
3. Just like in your high-school examinations. Cheat. Use your main freedom of information liberties to find successful previous grant proposals of the type of funding you are submitting an application for.
4. Peer below the surface: you can discover grants which will justify nearly anything. A few of years back an Australian grant of one thousand USD was given out to a couple of lazy college students to study precisely how long the perfect amount of time would be to dip your Tim Tam (Famous Aussie Chocolate Cookie) into your breakfast espresso was before it had had an opportunity to disintergrate!
5. Think “common good” – if you have a project that serves the needs of the nation (i.e. job training, back to work, employing the disadvantaged, reducing healthcare costs, curbing pollution, increasing safety, etc.) there’s probably government money to fund it. If it promotes international or local tourism dollars.. there’s probably money to fund it.
6. If you want a grant that’s closed to private businesses, find a non-profit that might want to collaborate on the project and share in the proceeds.
7. Although the US-centered Grants.gov does a reasonable job of collating US government funding programs for small business inside the Us you may also wish to take into account that the majority of of the grants which are possibly far more related to your own company (and that have much fewer people submitting an application for them], will be the funding programs that nobody has troubled to put on the grants.gov web site anyway (usually because of an 8-hour government employee shift includes a 7.5 hour espresso break).A good representation of this is the Australian equivelent of grants.gov called Grantslink. When I searched it, I immediately found 4 hundred grants that were posted on the site,yet with merely one google search, inside of ten minutes i had discovered an additional one thousand+ government funding initiatives that were unlisted on the grantslink site- (then another 500 more in the pursuing 20 minutes!)…of course it that was easy. what was i thinking?? Moreover, for non-public/non-government grants, and charitable organization funded grants – you’d want several weeks or months to search through all of this information. Recently however, some sensible private organizations have sprang up who have aggregated all of the latest grant funding and government finance options information into one product – these are definitely always just going to be a superior source of information mainly because they’re privately researched, up-to-date, comprehensive and correct. GovernmentBusinessGrants.com.au offers new entrepreneurs online subscription-based access to a huge data source of grants as well as a information-copy on DVD for the small business owner. You’ll find many businesses inside the Us, Uk and Europe who supply similar products. This is often by far the simplest approach and often will help save loads of research time for which you could be better off using to be effective on growing your company.
8. Be in it for the long term. The majority of grant programs are given at particular times of year. Typically, the due date for proposal application submissions can be extremely stringent. Prepare yourself so you don’t reach the event just as everyone is going home for the night.
9. Dot your i’s cross t’s. Applying for grant money is an exercise in precision. One misstep and you’ll be out of the running. Governmental red-tape can be a real nightmare if your application is received by a cranky proposal reviewer who was made to come back early from her 7.5 hour coffee-break.
If going through this piece of journalistic brilliance leaves you just a little perplexed… then you’ve already got an excellent sense for the joy of Government Grants and Loans. However, if you have a special solution to the planet’s troubles, a special practical capability or just the brains to find your funding for nothing..
10. Just plunge in the deepend of the pool and get it done. Ultimately, the fastest path to being successful is always to just take that one 1st step outside your current education.
If you’re an Australian Entrepreneur, and you’re looking to get your hands on a Government funding – The Government Business Grants Guide has all the up-to-minute info available and is the cheapest and most comprehensive Business Grants Guide on the market.