Tweet

Indirectly Accessing Government Grants

Guest post by: Joseph Lizio

Article Overview: Businesses seeking government grants soon find out that they cannot access these grant directly. They just do not work that way. But, knowing how they work, you might be able to access them indirectly.

Indirectly Accessing Government Grants

Government grants, or any grants for that matter, are probably one of the most sought after resource by business owners. Grants are essentially free business capital (free money that does not have to be paid back) and, if acquired, can go along way in providing needed resources to help businesses with immediate cash flow issues or to attract and win new business.

But, these grants, especially government grants, are extremely hard to get unless your business is tax exempt or a non-profit organization.

You hear this from nearly every expert or official on the planet - from Business.gov to SCORE and even from the Small Business Administration (SBA); who constantly state that there are no grants programs for ‘for-profit' businesses - the government (federal, state or local) does not provide grants directly to businesses to either start-up that business or to cover operating expenses.

And, for the most part this is very true. The government does not usually provide grant funds directly to businesses. But, businesses can access these funds in an indirect manner as most grant funding is allocated to government entities (federal, state and local) for distribution within their local areas.

Take an example of the federal transportation grants as part of the recent stimulus package. Let's say your city wants to purchase new buses for public transportation. Your city can apply for these stimulus grants to get the funding to purchase the new buses. The federal government agrees with your city and prepares to send the funding but stipulates that any purchase with these funds has to comply with the new emission standards - meaning the buses have to be green.

Now, when your city receives the grant funds, it has to go to a non-government company / manufacturer to purchase these vehicles as no government entity manufactures buses.

Your city officials will request bids from local and national transportation manufacturers outlining the emission standards that need to be met as well as their process for accepting bids.

If your company can meet those standards and win the bid, your company will essentially indirectly access those federal grant funds.

Keep in mind that your city, county, state or even federal governmental departments use grant funds to make all types of purchases from durables goods like buses, computers and office furniture to services like building construction, road maintenance and in-house child care; just to name a few.

To find out what type of grant programs your local and state governments are requesting bids for, simply call your mayor's office, county administration offices, state governor's office or visit your local chamber of commerce and ask about their community development grant or other grant programs.

All of these groups can point you to the right information for your local or state area.

I have seen numerous businesses actually start new companies just to bid on and fulfill these grants request.

Think about it. Your local government is struggling to revitalize your local downtown area and has solicited a grant to redesign the entire area in hopes of bringing in more businesses as well as more of the spending public. For this redesign your city officials are requesting bids for all types of services from urban planning and architecture to actual construction and landscaping for both buildings and parking area.

Now, let's say that you are thinking about entering the green business industry and want to create a company around this new idea. You quickly form a company and submit a bid to the city to design and build new green area within the downtown area to include the top of all government offices. If you win the bid, you have then indirectly accessed government or federal grant money.

Additionally, even if there are no grants already allocated to / for a product or service your business provides, you can always submit a white paper to your local grant authority outlining the benefits of your products or services.

If they agree that your products are something the area, region or state needs, then they can solicit federal grant funds on your behalf. They apply for and receive the grant funds then in turn purchase your offerings. You just have to sell them on the benefits of your products and services.

Lastly, keep in mind that these federal or state grants are not open funds to help you just start any business you want or to cover your operating costs or losses - the entities that distribute these funds must receive something in return - either some product or service they need or products or services that will benefit the community at large.

Just because you or your business may not be able to directly obtain federal or state grants it does not mean you can't get your hands on those funds. You just have to understand the rules of these grants as well as be willing to go out and either win these bids or sell yourself and your business to these granting entities - educating them on how your company can help them and those in your communities.

Related Articles
  The Recession and Canadian Government Grants For Business
  You Can Access Government Grants, You Just Have To Understand The Game
  The Small Business Grant Misnomer
  Government Business Grants in Canada. Are They a Myth?
  Small Business Grants and Loans
  Grants For Business Owners – Do they exist?
  3 Bitter Truths You Must Know When Applying for Business grants for women
  Get the Small Business Start Up Help that You Need
  Small Business Grants -- Fact or Fiction
  Small Business Loans with Bad Credit
  Four Places to find Small Business grants for women
  8 Ways to Better your Chance of Getting Business grants for women
  Business grants for women: How to Enhance Your Chance of Approval
  Federal Grant Resources
  V. C. China’s Approach to Financing: AID VS. COMMERCE: FACTORS INFLUENCING THE GROWING TIES
  Why Do It Yourself When You Can Still Get Grants For Loft Insulation?
  10 Ways To Fund Your Business
  Business grants for women: How to Write a Business Proposal
  Simple Steps To Finding Small Business Grants
  Free Money to Pay Your Bills? Not Quite Part 2

Article Tags: business, federal grants, free money, government, grants



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can someone explain Search engine optimization to me? - Hi, Ask yourself, "What is the goal of a search engine like Google?" A search engine's goal is to provide the most related (or best) web page results when someone searches. Do you think people are searching for "Auction Cars Government" or "Government Car Auction." In fact type those keywords into Google with the quotation marks. You will find that Google gives different results for each keyword phrases. Granted you get many of the web pages ranking the same but there is a difference. My answer is, use "Government Car Auction" or even "Government Seized Car Auction" because that is what people are searching for. That is how the majority of the indexed pages use. That is what makes sense when you read the phrase. Jeff
Re: Government Grants; sources and experiences - Quoting two investment experts on msnbc discussing grants for small business recently: Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE "I've been doing this for 16 yrs and never met anyone that got a grant." Phil Town, bestselling investing author, "...must be 20-30 websites about U.S. grants. I think they're all scams." Government grants are not available for for-profit start ups. Grants that are available are generally for very specific geographic areas and/or for specific development (environmental for example) and/or for non-profits. These grants are usually meant to create jobs for under developed areas. I hate to see so many entrepreneurs waste valuable time and resources chasing non existent grants. When the CEO of SCORE says he never met someone that got a grant, it's time to sit up and listen. This is actually the very reason the new funding source (below) was created.
Research & Development Tax Credits - If anyone is involved in any sort of R&D I have a contact that can submit an application for you to the Government of Canada to get back upto 80% of expenses you may have incurred. Best of all - all this at no cost to you. She's worked with companies of all sizes and part of her services, which are included is how to structure yourself in the future to continue to receive these Government Tax Credits. She can even go back to the last three years in your books to get Tax Credits refunds as well. Email me and I can share her details with you.
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":1q4mpk8g][quote:1q4mpk8g] This is what happens when the Government gets involved and puts its nose where it shouldn't. Let the market correct itself. There is no reason for the Government to bail everyone out. If the businesses, mainly banks, weren't corrupted with greed, this wouldn't have happened. They are and it did, so let them dwindle away and pay for their mistakes. That's what any small business has to do. Why should they be any different. They have gotten away with it for over 10 years! Surely they should have seen this coming. [/quote:1q4mpk8g][/quote:1q4mpk8g] The same thing happened in the early 30's that's why the law to prevent these practices was put in place. But, during the Clinton administration people decided that eliminating that law would boost the economy - once again, that didn't work. Kind of reminds you of the saying that people who don't consider history are bound to repeat it. Chris
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="ChrisH":1v1r9kmu][quote="Alan Mater":1v1r9kmu][quote:1v1r9kmu] This is what happens when the Government gets involved and puts its nose where it shouldn't. Let the market correct itself. There is no reason for the Government to bail everyone out. If the businesses, mainly banks, weren't corrupted with greed, this wouldn't have happened. They are and it did, so let them dwindle away and pay for their mistakes. That's what any small business has to do. Why should they be any different. They have gotten away with it for over 10 years! Surely they should have seen this coming. [/quote:1v1r9kmu][/quote:1v1r9kmu] The same thing happened in the early 30's that's why the law to prevent these practices was put in place. But, during the Clinton administration people decided that eliminating that law would boost the economy - once again, that didn't work. Kind of reminds you of the saying that people who don't consider history are bound to repeat it. Chris[/quote:1v1r9kmu] I totally agree. Now we're paying for that mistake.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Unharnessing Creativity in Business

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.