What business grants have you applied for or received?

[maxpete]

Hey everyone 🌟

To get your bright idea of your small business off the ground or expanding your operation, you will need funding. For this week, we wanted to learn more about your experience with applying for funding.

What business grants have you applied for or received?

If you have any tips on how to find or what to look out for when filling out the application, please do share in your reply!

Can’t wait to read them all ❣️

[maxpete]

Interested in hearing from @Doran, @DLRosenberg, @Minion & @JK_Fiber_Art! 

[DLRosenberg]

I have never received. a grant or award 😞 boooo

[Stacelyn24]

I have applied for a few smaller grants geared towards women.  I'll have to check my emails for their names lol.  I have tried for the Amex Small Business Grant as well...fingers crossed I'll receive it one day lol 🙂

[maxpete]

@Stacelyn24 rooting for you as well! 

[DLRosenberg]

Our local Village has recently received funding from NY State via their downtown revitalization grant. The Village is, in turn, offering grants to businesses that want to improve their store facades. Honestly the rules are so ridiculous- I passed the info on to my landlord, but I certainly won't be writing the grant.

[maxpete]

Oh very cool! Hopefully your landlord is able to get some of this funding!

[DLRosenberg]

I don't know if he wants to even bother with it. The hoops are insane.. the Village requiring building permit fees, architectural review board, etc etc... the State reimburses 80% after all the work is done- so you gotta float it... for God knows how long..

Sometimes it feels like these things aren't even real. The politicians do them and get all the press ... and then everyone forgets about it.

[phillipsrw]

Here in the UK, there is always a grant popping up for one thing or another, more so if you are in a rural location. They focus at ways to reduce energy consumption and green initiatives. So match funding for processing equipment that enable us to produce larger batches, so instead of 6 x 5 kg batches we are now producing 30kg batches in one go in a quarter of the time, grants to purchase electric vans, electric vehicle charging points at the office. Our landlord just had a matched funded grant for solar panels and one to put a shower in the offices to encourage people to cycle to work. 

[maxpete]

Love these initiatives behind the grants you mentioned! 

[RuckusDonuts]

My experience with grants is that its far, far more about the who and not the what, which severely impacts the ability to even apply for one 😕

[maxpete]

Sorry that this has been your experience so far! Hopefully this changes a bit and you're able to find grants that support you and your business too!

[alexandriak]

I've applied for countless. Haven't gotten 90% of them. The ones that I have gotten are ones specifically offered by my city or main street organizations. 

I would recommend to anyone that they check out what their city is offering and if they're within the limits of a main street org they reach out to them to get on their email list. These grants are usually quick and easy to apply for. I've gotten anywhere from $750 to $10,000 (covid relief). 

[maxpete]

Great advice you shared! 

[Bronze_Palms]

Following! I applied for a grant with my local city and was lucky enough to get it. I find local grants/scholarships are much more impactful for us.

[maxpete]

Congrats on this!

[HC_Charlie]

The only grant I received was during Covid; the local county small biz agency was helping small businesses to stay operational. I've applied to several through Hello Alice but never successfully received those. Some sound like great opportunities, with some long applications. They also offer coaching and other resources. I wonder if they give priority to people who may be more active in the threads.

[maxpete]

Agreed that the grant process can be long and tedious!