With this guide, you’ll be on your way to getting business grant funding!
Business grant funding has risen in importance due to the pandemic and other nationwide events such as Brexit. Businesses have had to re-evaluate operations, and business grant funding is a solid method of enabling this process.
According to government websites, there are 156 schemes available across the UK for start ups and ongoing businesses. But how do you rise above the crowd to win those grants? After reading this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of how to secure business grant funding.
Grants, loans, and investments- What’s the difference?
A business loan is money for your business you’ll have to pay back within an agreed timescale. This is different to business grant funding, which you won’t be expected to pay back.
Some grants are conditional in that you must invest the same amount into your business. For instance, if you’re provided with a £20,000 grant, you’ll need to invest £20,000 into your business too.
Investments are slightly different, as they usually come in three categories:
- Private equity: Privately owned institutions purchasing a company.
- Venture capital: Mainly for funding start-up companies with a long-term goal for growth. This form of investment generally comes from well-off investors, investment banks, and any other financial institutions.
- Angel investments: High net worth individuals search for high returns through private investments in start-ups. These investors tend to invest when no one else is backing the business, hence the name ‘angel’.
And when considering investments, you need to ask yourself how involved you wish them to be. Do you simply want investment, or advice and guidance?
What other help is out there?
Other financial help available to your business depends on your location, size and industry. It’ll also depend on whether you’re a start-up or a small business.
Business grant funding from government apprenticeships are available as well.
You won’t be susceptible to the apprenticeship levy if your pay bill is less than £3 million. This provides you with 5% funding towards training for apprentices if the apprenticeship started on or after 1 April 2019. The government pays the remainder to the training organisation. You also pay your share directly, according to a payment schedule you agree with the training organisation.
There is also the kickstart scheme, which encourages business funding for ‘new job placements’ for people aged 16 to 24. This is to support people who are at risk of long-term unemployment. The employees get 100 per cent of the living wage for 25 hours a week, for six months.
Things to consider when applying for business grant funding
Do you fit?
Ensure that the funder’s aims, objectives and eligibility criteria fit with your bid. Carefully read the guidelines on how to apply and establish what additional documents and information you may need.
You need to ask yourself if the funder’s aims and objectives align with your application. If not, then maybe they aren’t the most suitable funder for you. Are you asking for an appropriate amount of funding? What size grants do they offer?
Ultimately, you should assess the:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats.
Always ask for feedback if unsuccessful
Feedback can be a great tool to help you improve so don’t be disheartened if you didn’t succeed this time. Asking for feedback can help highlight your shortcomings or mistakes that you can learn from and avoid in future. It can help you increase your chances of your funding application being awarded next time around. Business grant funding is no different regarding feedback, so the more you have the better a candidate you become!
Writing bids
To be successful in your funding application, you’ll need to consider grant writing.
When writing your bid for funding, you need to show how you have identified:
- The need for your service
- How your solution meets the need
- How you will engage with the intended audience
- The measurable outcomes that you’re aiming to achieve
- The benefits
- How it will have a lasting impact
- The running costs.
You must state how you’re going to achieve these outcomes. If you set measurable outcomes that you can achieve, you’ll be more likely to succeed and win funding.
Example layout of a bid for business grant funding
An example of a typical layout for a bid for funding may look like this:
- Project summary
- Public description
- Describe how your project fits the scope.
The following are some examples of the type of application questions you may need to answer, depending on your bid.
- What is the problem you want to solve?
- Who is it a problem for?
- What is innovative about the approach or technology?
- Who is the project team?
- Are you capable of delivering the solution?
- Do you need additional support?
- What will you do with the funding?
- How will you manage the project and risks effectively?
- Finances.
In conclusion…
So now you’re aware of:
- The layout of business grant funding
- The difference between grants, investments and loans
- The financial aid available for businesses within the U.K
- The power of writing funding bids
- The advantages of feedback
Now you know this information, what can do for you?
Our services
Grant Writing
Our Grant Writing Service is for businesses who want to start applying for grants. We also help businesses who have been applying for grants but aren’t seeing success.
Our Grant Writing Consultants have over 60 years of experience in bidding for funding and grants. From start-up business grants to self-employed business grants, we take care of the whole thing for you. We’ll even submit the grant application for you, on your behalf.
Get in touch to find out how we can help your business get started and grow!
Grant Tracker
You can also find grants on our Business Grant Tracker. Currently, we have over 1,700 live business grant and funding opportunities. Our team manually track 1,500+ data streams searching for business grant opportunities. Each one is then uploaded to one central system, streamlining the process.
All you need to do to gain access is sign up for free.
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