Government Grants For Business |
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By: Swati Banerjee Posted: 2007-06-03 11:12:30 |
| Obtaining grants does not depend on any one factor; it is a combination of availability, hard work and originality, which might be responsible for receiving such government grants.Government grants in terms of financial aids are made available to individuals mostly for educational support, artistic development, and various other types of scientific or research work. Government grants are usually free as you need not pay back the money, but likewise the availability of the grant also has to be ensured while at the same time, how and where the grant can be made available is a matter of concern for the common man. Getting hold of a grant, being entitled to it and working towards maintaining it is hard work. There is a lot of hard work involved in the process of procuring a grant.Availing Of The GrantFor availing yourself of the grant, you must provide the funding agency with an elaborate and accurate written proposal, which justifies and states your goals and puts forward your plan and a more or less accurate idea of the kind of money you need for your activities. If you are awarded a grant you have to keep updating the government about your regular progress, and send the program evaluation or the financial status reports to the government agencies.These days there are plenty of fraud cases, where people are made fools. You might have seen certain advertisements doing the rounds about 'free money' available just for an application. Such hoaxes should be avoided. If you are qualified for a grant, you have to be prepared to work hard to earn it amidst stiff competition. You could also hire a professional to help you for professional advice about how to go about obtaining the grant.Applying For Grants Within A Time FrameApplicants should be aware that not all government grants are available throughout the year. This means that there is a specific time period, rather time frame, within which you are supposed to apply for such government grants. All this information is made available to the public or announced after a particular fashion by a government agency. When the agency makes funds available for a grant, it makes a public announcement in the Federal Register, which is published every day barring weekends.It has been noticed that the government agencies involved in issuing these government grants make no apologies for the fact that the application process is difficult and that it involves complicated matters for grant funding. The administration is though justified largely in trying to make the process rather painstaking in an attempt to filter out the wrong applicants from the deserving ones. It also serves as an assessment, financially speaking, for the actual need of the applicant.Identifying The Right AgencyNext you have to find and identify the right kind of government agencies, which provide grants for specific purposes or in specific subject areas that are identical with what you are searching for. Those of you trying to fund an already existing or non-profitable business may find it difficult to get funding and getting government grants. This is because government grants are almost always given to non-profitable organizations for carrying out public service work and services aimed at benefiting the community or people on a large scale.It is true that while there are actually still no direct small business grants available from the federal government, there are of course many state development agencies, which offer direct small business development grants and various other types of monetary help, which have been designed to encourage and help businessmen in starting or developing a small business of their own.Small Business Administration (SBA)Even though there is painfully little that the U.S. government does to provide direct grants for starting up or expanding a small business on one's own, the government does provide plenty of free help in the planning stage of how to start or build upon your own business and in obtaining SBA-backed low-interest, small business loans.SBA is the U.S. Small Business Administration. Ever since 1953 the SBA has aided and helped thousands of Americans build their own small businesses. Thanks to agencies like these, small business grants are no more a pipe dream. It has in fact helped the small business scenario by sanctioning the government grants, which are so much needed to venture into or expand your business.Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)There are a few very restricted, 'hard to get' grants available in the small businesses category for research related work on new technologies on behalf of the government. A body called the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program tries to give entrepreneurs up to $100,000 for research on an idea which sounds promising and also an additional sum of up to $1 million to create the related products from it, if the research shapes up well.The only hitch here is the fact that the ideas in question have to do with things like capturing a satellite in orbit and repairing it, etc. It's obvious that such people who deal with or handle such intricate, detailed proposals for these government grants are experts by themselves in the various fields of engineering and science and are the brightest technological minds within the industry. As such competing with them for the small business grants is no joke.A lot has been said and talked about government grants, their availability or non-availability, and how the real people in need of them could benefit from them. Government grants are made available for the promotion of small scale business growth as well as education and such other socially relevant purposes. Usually government grants are distributed based on the type of business or social activity, the geographical location apart from what the grant is being used for. Most grants are designed in order to implement government policies and in an indirect way they are often used to enhance and provide a lift to economic development and growth of business infrastructure. |
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