Applying for Business Funding Grants
Finding and applying for business funding grants is a tedious and time-consuming task. For those who have never done this before it is even worse because it can be completely overwhelming. You can enquire at various banks and governmental agencies concerning business funding grants and the application process, but you can also find it online if you look in the right places.
First you have to know that there are different types of business funding grants that you can look for.
- The Direct Grant is forwarded as a cash gift to be spent on various expenses that a business can accrue. This includes staff training, recruitment, and a number of other items. Don’t expect to have all of your expenses covered by these business funding grants as the majority of times they do not. The institute still expects you to have some money that you will be investing into your business.
- The Repayable Grant is one of the business funding grants that does need to be repaid. However, this comes from the profits that the business brings in. If the business fails, then the grant does not have to be repaid.
- Soft Loans are considered to be business funding grants because the terms of repayment are a lot looser than those of regular loans. The term may be for longer and there may not be any interest to pay either.
- Equity Finance is yet another source of business funding grants. This is not a loan because they do not expect repayment or interest however, this does mean that they hold a percentage of the shares or stocks of the business and can sell them in the future at a profit. This is different than a venture capitalist though because the terms and conditions are not so strict and the amount of return is very flexible and not so demanding.
- Packaged Assistance Awards are comprised of a few different types of business funding grants that are put together as a customized fit for each business. This means that those involved will have more than one angle covered and there is less hassle for them in the end.
These business funding grants are largely taken from public funding and are used for this purpose so that the economy will grow and prosper. In order for the economy to get better, there is a need to successful businesses. The European Union is probably the biggest source of public funding, but since there are also many businesses applying for these business funding grants, you will have to be on time with your application and proposal, and any other documentation that you may need.
While there is a lot of paperwork to these grant proposals in many cases, if you don’t apply for them you could be missing out on the help that you make you a success. There are a number of areas that the business funding grants cover than could save you more money than you realize. While some grants have limits to what you can apply for, some do not. There are grants that offer between five and fifty million pounds if you fit the qualifications, so they are not something that you want to procrastinate with. The areas covered include:
- Start-up
- Marketing
- Training
- Employment
- Environment
- Design
- Quality
- Research and Development
There are more to the list than these, but this will give you an idea of how extensive the business funding grants really are.
You can find these public business funding grants in various places, but some are more common than others. The biggest supporter is the European Commission. The next spot would go to the National Governments. These include the UK government, the Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, or the Northern Ireland Assembly. While there are over one hundred awarding bodies involved, some of which include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Education and Employment, Countryside Agency, and Enterprise Ireland.
A portion of business funding grants that you may apply for will depend on three different pieces of criteria. They include location as some only serve specific parts of the UK; the size because many are given to small and medium sized businesses; and industry, as various business funding grants cater to industry specific businesses. This being said, certainly not all grants are based on this and will pertain to those across the United Kingdom.
When you make your application for these business funding grants you have to make sure that you have a few things in place first. You will need to have the same amount of funds set aside of your own to match the grant amount requested. This money can come from other loans or grants, or previous savings. There are generally no rules concerning these except they must be legal funds. You can describe your plans as a project if you wish, and you have to have a written business plan to present.
You should make contact with the person or persons involved with distributing the business funding grants before submitting the application. This will ensure that they know who you are and will be expecting your application. In the application you should state how your project is related to the objectives of the agency that you are applying to. You will need to include a full layout of where the money is supposed to be allocated. They will want to make sure that the business funding grants are not being wasted.
When you are waiting to hear the decision of from the awarding body concerning the business funding grants you have to realize that national agencies will take longer than the local ones. This is because there are generally more applications to process and there is a longer posting time as well. Local agencies may take between days and weeks, but European agencies will more than likely take months. You must take this into consideration before you apply for business funding grants because it can affect the route that you take.
There is a lot more information regarding business funding grants available. If you would like to have more thorough and detailed information, you can visit www.2-small-business.com. They have a wide scope of business funding grants information waiting for you.