The quest for financial support or funding is an ongoing challenge for small businesses, and for many in Australia, the solution lies in small business grants. At any given time, there are billions of dollars on offer from all tiers of Government, Federal, State and Local creating a massive, yet often overwhelming, landscape of opportunity.
The question, “Where to Find Small Business Grants?” is one of the most common and complex enquiries faced by Grant Works Consultants. This article will help to offer a strategic approach to navigating the grant ecosystem, understanding governmental intent, and positioning your business for success.
The fundamental difficulty in answering “Where to find small business grants” isn’t a lack of opportunity; it’s a failure to properly categorize and align the business’s need with the grant’s specific purpose. A quick search of government websites will reveal a myriad of programs, but this is merely the starting point.
As you drill down into the exact requirements of each grant, the more specific the specifications become. Every grant has a precise purpose, and that purpose is invariably tied to a broader public policy goal, such as fostering economic growth, creating employment, boosting exports, driving innovation, or addressing environmental challenges. These commercial grants must not be confused with community grants, which, while valuable, have entirely different required outcomes and assessment criteria.
As an example, it may be that your business is involved in flower growing and you have a new way of preserving the flower arrangement, so they last longer. It therefore goes to reason that you will automatically start looking for grants, which may apply to agriculture or domestic cultivation of plants. This is when it can become somewhat tricky and a specialist such as the Grant Works Team can help by carefully analysing the exact wording of the grant applications you may have found, for details within the application, where your new product or process would apply.
On occasions your new process or product may fall under a different category altogether and not related to agriculture at all. Your Grant Works Consultancy Team can quickly see how any cross referencing between grant applications may be of advantage to your application. It may well be that your process or product also has application across other industries such as preserving fresh goods for export of similar. Depending on each grant application and industry it may well be that you are entitled to more than one grant.
Successfully locating the ideal grant requires moving beyond simple keyword searches and adopting a strategic, project-centric perspective. Many business owners initially fall into the trap of searching only within their immediate industry.
In this case the true innovation—the core of your grant application—isn’t merely “flower preservation “; it’s the preservation technique. This technique may have applications far beyond the floral industry, potentially falling under categories such as:
A specialized consultancy such as Grant Works understands how to carefully analyse the exact wording and specific intent behind a grant application. This includes the eligibility criteria, the stated program objectives, and even the application’s assessment matrix—to find details within the application where your new process would apply, even if it seems initially unrelated.
This ability to cross-reference and think laterally can be the difference between a successful application for a substantial grant and a rejection from an overly narrow, industry-specific program.
It may even be the case that your process or product is entitled to more than one grant, provided the funding is for distinct stages or aspects of the project that do not overlap. The preservation process itself might qualify for an R&D grant, while a plan to use the process to enter, say the Asian export market might qualify for an Export Market Development Grant, although these usually follow later.
In simple terms how to find business grants is best left to those who do this everyday for their clients as is the case with Grant Works Consultants. It is quite a challenge on occasions to find a suitable grant especially if the project is unique in nature. Government grants are a dynamic resource, constantly opening, closing, and evolving. You may find what you believe to be a suitable grant only to discover the funding round has closed, or the eligibility criteria have been subtly altered.
Selecting the right grant depends on your process or product and market segment it in which it has application. It may be that you can access multiple grants for each different program if they do not overlap. It is best to consider using a grant specialist such as Grant Works as they will have expertise in how to potentially cross reference varying different grants for a specific new product or service and how they relate to each other.
Often a business owner will just find and grant and apply and have the application rejected for many reasons and mainly for not understanding what the grant is intended to do in the first place and why it is on offer.
Government grants may also overlap to some degree where a local government grant may apply to a similar process or project as a federal government. Whilst this may seem attractive care needs to be exercised to ensure that the projects are different from each other. Governments will not issue grants for the same project. However, if initial funding is insufficient to complete a significant project a further application can be made for further consideration to release additional funding albeit it may fall under a different grant scheme and project must be exceptional.
When asking the question how I get grants for my business you need to consider just how many other people are asking the same question. You need to have the edge and “stand out from the crowd” to be successful.
The first consideration your Grant Works Team will discuss with you is exactly what is the nature of your new product or service and how is it different from any other process or product. Government grants for commercial activities are usually driven by “new knowledge” and the potential to advance the country, its citizens and export potential. In effect government grants are an accelerator of innovation.
Your consultant will cross link many different grant offerings from government to try and optimise the outcome for you. New knowledge may be developed in one industry but may apply for other industries and this is where your consultant can help. It may well be that your consultant suggests that you apply for a grant, which may seem totally unrelated to the work you are carrying out.
It is sometimes more advantageous to apply for a grant outside your sphere of development but with a longer-term approach and a larger grant. Your grant specialist will be across this and will exercise care to ensure the projects are aligned with the same or similar development outcome and benefits.
When asking, how do business grants work probably a better question would be is, why is the government doing this and why would they bother. Government of Federal, state and local all have varying sizes of grants available for a host of different applications. The primary motivation is not to simply give away money, but to influence economic behaviour and de-risk private sector investment in projects that deliver a clear public good that the private sector might otherwise be hesitant to undertake alone due to high costs or long timelines.
Government grants are not loans – they are non-repayable grants which require and in-kind business contribution.
Government grants are very generous and usually issue on a $1 to $1 contribution ratio. That means the government will contribute $1 while the business does the same. This is a particularly generous scenario and remember the grants are non-repayable.
Another feature of the grants is that you of course do not have to guarantee success of the venture only that given your best efforts and funds contribution the venture should be success. You have to guarantee that, given your best efforts and funds contribution, the venture has a credible, well-researched, and well-managed plan for success. The government assumes the risk associated with innovation but demands competence and accountability in execution thereof.
Government grants do not apply to simply improving a general business or process and of course they require matching funding.
Business grants are generally not designed to help you buy a business, however, some regional localised grants in specific regions may apply where a business proposes to build or erect a new building or facility to improve the general wellbeing of the area. For instance, to build a new holiday complex to attract new holiday makers to a specific area, which may have been declining in recent years. These types of grants are usually localised by regional governments.
Some specific government grants are based on a $2 to $1 ratio. These grants are for specific targeted industries such as energy conservation or environmental breakthrough technologies. Thes grants are generally for “start-ups” showing incredible promise in the pursuit of new knowledge and backed by universities or the like.
As mentioned above threading your way through the wide and varied selection of government grants can be a daunting task and best left to the people who do this every day. The team at Grant Works during their meeting with you will quickly drill down into exactly what your business activity is and where it can fit into the governments bigger picture for grants.
Other reasons for using a Grant Works Consultancy are not just finding the grant but also ensuring alignment and compliance throughout the grant lifecycle. It can be quite confusing to many business owners that a grant may have a carry-over effect between grants. You need to ensure you apply for the right grant rather than just grabbing the first one that comes along.
One of the main reasons for using a specialist such as Grant Works is that they will ensure that the grant application and your specific project are closely aligned for best results. They will ensure that all funds expended have a certain projected milestone outcome. It can be quite confusing to many that grants applications may have a carry over effect between grants and you need to ensure you apply for the right grant rather than grab the first one that come along.
Your flower preservation process may also have application for say export industries, medical or food preservation as an example. This is where your specialist team will have the commercial understanding to be able to expand your thinking into a wider more diverse range of applications.
Government grants are delivered in stages as the project progresses and as pre-determined as milestone are met. It is important that achievable milestones are outlined in the grant application. Accurate and clear bookkeeping of all expenses and costs are essential to release further milestone funds. Insufficient reporting techniques may lead to delays in receiving further funds which is to be avoided. Substandard reporting can also have an adverse effect on any future grant’s applications. It is important that businesses have a good clean compliance record.
Your Grant Works Team will guide you through this process and remember government grants are specifically designed to advance the community generally usually by creating employment opportunities or to better the environment and living standards.
Your Grant Works Team.
