What is a Grant?

Before we actually start exploring various options, let us understand what a grant is. It is free money offered to start and flourish your new business. The best part is, you don’t have to repay it. However, not every business receives this grant. In fact, a very small portion of the total applicants receives it. So, the key to avail such grants for starting small business is sending a perfect application.

Most Important Thing

If you want o augment your chances of receiving a grant, one thing you must consider while filling out an application is investor’s purpose behind providing such grant. It would be futile to send an application if your purpose doesn’t match with the grant providers. Hence, when you apply, make sure you mention the purpose correctly, with reasons that support and make you stand out among other applicants.

The Application

The grant provider doesn’t know anything about you except what you choose to show in your application form. You will have to mention very important points in your application. Your application must inform them your business is being run smoothly, has a specific business plan, and has required funds.

For you to convince grant providers, mentioning these five things in your grant application is very important:

1.    Need of the Project
Grant are provided to businesses to help them achieve their goals. Mention a specific problem you are facing or are about to face. Explain how this grant will help eradicate the problem.

2.    Business Plan
They wouldn’t entertain any application without a proper business plan. Provide them a step-by-step plan moving toward the organizational goal.

3.    Calculations
You will have to mention the exact amount you would require to implement the project. This amount, however, has to be explained accurately with the help of required calculations.

4.    Trust
Sending an application to receive grants for starting small business is all about building trust. The grant providers must be convinced you have to right vision, required capability, and effective management team to achieve goals set by you if grant is provided.

5.    The Big Picture
Tell them how your business will eventually help other in the society as well. If you have a good product idea, explain how it will help people and make world a better place to live in.

If you use these guidelines to send a grant application, it is more likely to be accepted. Make sure you know much about the grant providers and their purpose before you fill out the application.

Assistance and financial help for small business is provided by a specialized organization known as Small Business Administration. Many business today are flourishing due to the grants and loans provided by this governmental organization.

Almost every business need, from financial help to business counseling to investment ideas, Small Business Administration helps new entrepreneur in every possible area. This organization provides four types of credit. There is micro loan program for very small business; small business investment corporate program, a start-up loan guarantee plan, and development of business loan.

If these options don’t seem to be viable, you can seek other grants for starting a small business. A very effective type of finance for small business is large corporation. One can apply to these big companies, which generally provide grants and loans to small business, as this amount given as loan can be written off from their taxable income.

Majority of people do not apply for this grant assuming it would be a complicated process. While it is a lengthy procedure, it is not at all complicated; it’s quite easy. If aren’t able to acquire loan from federal government, you can apply to any of the state development agencies. These loans are specifically designed to meet the needs of small business. Hence, interest rate charged in not very high, and repayment options are quite convenient.

These grants for starting a new business can be pretty useful for entrepreneurs. Commencement is not the only reason why they seek these loans. Expansion and diversification are some of the major reasons. Some acquire to fund the working capital amount, some to cover the recent loss. Whatever the reason may be, numerous people today are depended on such grants and loans, without which they would have not flourished.

1. Have a vision. Know where you are going.
2. Sometimes we are successful because we are fortunate. But being fortunate is being at the right place at right time.
3. When you are struck with a good idea, don’t wait for things to come to you. Act on it, immediately.
4. Gain knowledge, analyze it, and act on it. Without action, your knowledge is futile.
5. Being in your comfort zone wouldn’t ever benefit you. Get out of it, face the real world.
6. Strive and succeed in becoming bigger than your problems. Take charge, it’s your life.
7. If you want to do business, find people who share objective similar to yours.
8. We all know it takes long, probably many years, to build your reputation and few seconds to ruin it. But if we think about this before every action we perform, we will do things quite differently.
9. Never borrow money
10. The give and take relationship in business – You pay the price, you get value
11. Don’t think small. Think big, very big. Strive to become the best.
12. To check the quality of your business, check feedback of your customers
13. Failing is not a disgrace. Refusing to learn from it, however, is.
14. Keep learning, always
15. Ask yourself, “how you are different from the rest?” and answer honestly
16. Tough times aren’t dangerous. They bring the biggest opportunities
17. Use social media tools to promote your business
18. You have all the resources today – technology, people, money. The only thing you have to produce is the knowledge to use it.
19. Be simple, be clear, be quick
20. Every minor change in the world is an opportunity
21. Start a business after doing your homework. Don’t jump in it just because you have accumulated capital
22. If you want to reach to the other end of the ocean, you have to start from this end. There is no other way. Be persistent.
23. Not being a manager doesn’t mean you cannot lead a team or manage things. You have every thing except designation.
24. Bringing a change is difficult. Be prepared for it.
25. Don’t move ahead without a plan.
26. If you innovate something – a new idea, new product, or a new service – there will always be chaos around. Keep going.
27. If you missed an opportunity, you will get another. There is no difference between a bus and an opportunity. You need to keep your eyes open, that’s it.
28. If you start small, beat giants by providing your employees with what they crave for in big companies – respect, appreciation, and motivation.
29. If you become successful, remember, power and wealth demands responsibility.
30. There are no shortcuts – believe it or blame it.

Can you imagine that Ross Perot, one of the most successful business persons of the 1900s was the son of a horse trader? He was put to work at 6 years of age by his father. Later he joined the US Navy and became its president. Later he owned and sold off a couple of the richest companies –Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems for billions of dollars!

Wayne Huizenga, the waste management king, as we know him now, was a gas station attendant when in high school. He also worked as a truck driver when he was only 17 years old. Later, he too like Ross Perot, joined the government services, i.e. the Army, and started his waste management company that has grown in worth to $300 million today.

Warren Buffet, the investment guru and one of the richest men on this planet today, worked as a newspaper boy. His exceptional investment talents showed up when he was only 13 years of age, when he cleverly managed to deduct the cost of his bicycle from his tax returns. By 26 years of age, the investment wizard was already worth $140,000.

You can read about all the 10 exemplary entrepreneurs in mint Blog. Most of them belonged to very ordinary or poor families. As we might wrongly imagine, they didn’t come to this world with silver spoons in their mouths. When you look around you, you’ll find a lot of people who have made it to the top by virtue of their extraordinary talent and hard work. Well, I do agree that most of us may not be prodigies when it comes to talent like many of these illustrious people, but at least we can always better our lives, by identifying our aptitudes and channelizing our talents in the correct direction. It’s never too late to go for a change. Take the example of Larry Elision. Unlike so many contemporaries of his, he was not a very promising child. Even people thought he was not worth anything. But later with turn of events, the Oracle Open Co-Founder of the future, showed exceptional skills in mathematics and sciences which made him the person he is.

You might not become a famous person like these exemplary corporate figures, but with hard work and proper usage of your intellect you can always improve your present life situation. After all, extraordinary people are not different from ordinary people in any way. Its only that they do things in a different way.