When it involves raising money for your small business, there’s no shortage of options: friends and family, small business loans, angel investors, or enterprise capitalists, to call a few. But all of those options come with a catch. You’ll either have to offer up a part of your online business or borrow money from your funding source in some other way.
If you are looking for money that you just don’t have to pay back, look no further than grant programs. They are a free technique to build a business because they supply free money to take a position in the people, materials, equipment, or promotional tools that you must launch your success.
Here are some specific recommendations for creating a small business grant application that any grant committee will take serious note of. Most grant applications are fairly straightforward. You will often have to reply a series of questions about your online business idea, your future plans, who you are, and how the grant will impact your online business. Take the time to elucidate to the grant committee why your online business is the best fit for the money being offered.
- Explore winning grant applications
The best technique to approach a grant application is to look at previous winners and take a cue from their answers. This doesn’t mean copying them, but slightly look at how much space they devote to describing their business, how specific the answer is to customers, products, and services, and how forward-looking the description is. In other words, do the winners talk more about what they’ve already completed or what they hope to perform in the future?
See what has worked in the past.
Many grant programs provide links to previous winners, so you may do that. Here is one from Eileen Fisher’s business grant program, and also Previous Amber Grant Award Winners.
- Provide numbers if possible
The first challenge is clearly communicating what your online business does and who it serves, but the second challenge is proving that there is enough market demand for what you sell. Grant organizations wish to support a profitable business, so do all the things you may to indicate that your online business is growing.
If you’re already in business, you may do this by reporting things like sales figures, growth percentages, or average traffic data for your store or website. It’s easy to say that there’s interest in your products or services, but quantifiable evidence goes a great distance toward strengthening your case.
And if you are a startup, even if you do not have a sales history, you may provide the size of your market, the growth rate of your industry, and the demographics that support the market opportunity.
You may even do your personal research by creating a survey with a tool like SurveyMonkey or running a survey on your organization’s Facebook group, then present the results to the grant committee.
Balancing written statements with numerical evidence will make your grant application a much stronger candidate for funding.
- Don’t be modest
Now is the time to speak about your personal and business accomplishments. Mention any honors or awards you’ve won, any media attention you’ve received, or any other accomplishments that persuade the grant committee that your online business is already on the path to success.
No, you do not have to say your highschool GPA (unless you are still in highschool) or accomplishments completely unrelated to your field (like a record-breaking 200-meter dash time). But assuming you have room, include the undeniable fact that you have patents pending or are mentored by a leader in your field, for example.
- Be clear about the way you will use the money
Once you’ve convinced the grant committee that your online business deserves financial support, tell them exactly how you intend to spend the money. For example: WomensNet Amber Scholarship Application has only two questions, the second of which was, “Tell us what you would do with the money if you were awarded a grant (of $10,000).”
Be specific. What would you invest in?
Then explain why these purchases can be most useful to your online business. How is buying more raw materials key to increasing profits? What will hiring a part-time worker mean for sales? Or why hiring a lawyer is a critical next step for your online business?
If possible, emphasize how critical this grant can be to your organization’s ultimate success. Point out that your organization has reached a plateau or is just getting began, and the grant money will allow your online business to grow sales or profits exponentially.
Sales Force
AI + Data + CRM = more sales and happier customers.
Start or grow your online business with the #1 CRM. Salesforce now has AI tools that enable you to connect with your customers in a whole recent way.
If you make a purchase, we are going to receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.
- Follow the instructions
In the excitement of filling out an application for a grant for your online business, it’s possible you’ll lose sight of some of the detailed requirements. That’s dangerous.
Before you begin typing in your answers, read the instructions and guidelines several times. Learn the rules so you do not break them. This means knowing:
- The most vital thing is the application deadline. If you miss it, you won’t be considered.
- Maximum variety of words. If you simply have 500 words, do not try to scale back the font size to suit 600. Your application will probably be disqualified and you can be out of the race.
- Do you wish referrals? If so, you need to start setting them up immediately so you do not have to go looking for someone to offer you a referral at the last minute.
- Do that you must submit a video? Some apps require a video statement, which might take some time to plan and record if done well. This means you’ll be wanting to think about what you are going to say, what background you must use, and who else needs to be in it with you, if anyone.
- Is voting involved? Public voting is sometimes a feature of some grant programs. If so, it’s possible you’ll wish to develop a technique to encourage customers to vote commonly. The variety of votes received could also be the deciding factor.
Key conclusions
The only thing you actually have control over in this process is the quality of your application. Do the best job you may, and then move on to something else that may profit your organization, whether that’s researching ways to rent interns or negotiating with suppliers to secure higher payment terms, for example.
There are so many other things you may do to grow your online business, so don’t think that a grant is the only answer to your startup’s success or failure. It’s not. Not one grant application will make or break you. In fact, there are several business grant programs you may apply for.