What are Business Growth Grants?
Through an Entrepreneurs’ Programme grant scheme, Growth Grants, aptly, are to aid in the growth of your business. The national network offers you an opportunity to improve business practices, be competitive and get access to growth support options. The Growth Grants are one year grants used to improve specific areas of your business, as recommended by a network facilitator who will have worked with you to create a ‘roadmap’ for growth. This means, after a successful application, the grant money is to be used purposefully toward recommendations identified on the roadmap (and not just be absorbed by normal business expenses). The minimum amount you can access is $2500, but the grants go right up to $20,000 and can be up to 50% of the cost of an eligible project.
What are the eligibility requirements?
There are some specific business requirements you need to fulfil (you can find the full list of Growth Grant eligibility requirements here). However, in terms of activity eligibility, there is a short list of requirements that can encompass a wide and varied range of possibilities and opportunities to harness growth. They must:
Link to an area of the business specified in your plan
Give you new abilities to trade in Australia and other countries
Engage services outside of your business.
Unsurprisingly, we believe that digital (whether that be digital marketing or website development) is one of the most effective ways to satisfy this criteria – there is no other infinite path to connect with your audience, clients and customers than on the digital platform. We found, after the advent of you-know-what, an influx of previously digitally-baron businesses needing to include this in their business plan in order to stay afloat. Now, there is a greater understanding that it is better to be digitally proactive, than to be reactive.
This can mean:
Development of a new website
A holistic digital marketing overhaul
A combination of digital marketing and development to create a succinct flawless digital path for your users.
This is not the only way you can best utilise the grant, however, and that is something that can be worked out with your facilitator on your plan. The important thing is that you know about, and are proactive with, the grants that can be the difference between thriving or simply surviving (at best) in business. With what we have all faced as business owners recently, we are savvier to the reality that while we never know what lies ahead, we will forever prioritise being as prepared as we possibly can be.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash
