When you own a small business or are just initiating your start-up, finances will always be at the forefront. Having enough funds to run different business functions is essential to business growth and success.
However, there will be instances when you will have fewer funds to keep your business afloat. This can be a difficult time. But if you believe in your business idea and know you will succeed, business grants can provide you with the required funds to overcome a difficult financial time.
Since you might have a lot of questions about business grants, we reached out to an expert business coach Australia to get some insights into it. Here’s what they had to say.
Business Grants Are Meant to Achieve a Purpose
As mentioned above, business grants are all about providing the required finances to small businesses. However, they also serve a few major purposes. Most business grants offered by federal governments are meant to achieve one of the following things:
- Increased productivity
- Increased revenue
- Generating more new jobs
- Economic growth
- Market expansion and more.
Each business grant will mention the purpose they want to achieve or help your business achieve. If your goals align with their grant’s purpose, you can apply for it.
However, if not, make sure to walk away immediately. In most cases, when your business goals don’t align with business grant goals, you might not be competitive or eligible enough even to apply.
Business Grants are NOT “One-Size Fits All”
Just like there are different types of businesses, there are different types of business grants suiting each type of business. And hence they aren’t one-size fits all!
You need to do your own research, read the terms and conditions, and connect with the grant providers to get more information about the chosen business grant.
As mentioned above, if the goals of a business grant don’t align with yours, try to find a grant that does. Don’t just believe someone saying, “You can get the grant easily.” To be honest, getting grants can be difficult, and you can achieve success only when you do your due diligence.
You can also connect with your coach at the business coaching in Australia to get more guidance on finding the right business grants for your business.
Business Grants Are Competitive
Most business grants are highly competitive. The assessment is merit-based and must align with the grant requirements. Hence, applying for such grants requires massive effort, energy and a lot of your precious business time.
Most competitive grants are meant to achieve goals related to business growth, economic growth and market expansion. If these are your goals too, you may apply for such competitive grants.
Business Grants are Responsive
Business grants are highly responsive to market change. For example, during the pandemic, several federal governments started offering “stimulus” grants or “relief” grants to businesses to stay afloat.
Such grants are available with different requirements. If you are looking for such grants to boost your finances, you can apply for such relief grants. These grants are meant to plug holes during difficult times.
Similar to such responsive grants, you can find other grants too which can help you tackle some other aspect of your business.
Eligibility Doesn’t Always Mean Acceptance
When talking about business grants with your corporate coaching coach, make sure to understand that eligibility for a business grant doesn’t always mean acceptance.
Business grants offer broad and wide eligibility criteria. Hence, reading it carefully is essential. Even if you match the eligibility criteria, it doesn’t warrant your acceptance.
As mentioned above, business grants are highly competitive and merit-based. If you don’t align with the grant goals enough, you won’t be accepted. The best way to overcome this issue is to read the guidelines carefully, check out the FAQs, and get to know former businesses that have received funding from the grant. This can give you acute insights into the possibility of successfully getting the grant.
Wrapping It Up
Business grants are a great way to fill your financial void or help propel your business goals of market expansion, revenue growth and more.
If you want to know more about business grants and how to apply for them, get in touch with us at Keystone Executive Coaching. We offer business coaching services to small businesses and help them achieve growth in different business functions such as finances, marketing, human resources, and more.
Get in touch with us now to know more.
