A common question is, can you access grants and funding to startup a business or support growth? And whilst there isn’t a magic bucket that everyone can tap into, there are ways that you can uncover funding with some simple actions and reminders.
Set a reminder to regularly check out websites (maybe once a fortnight), such as the Australian Government’s Grant Connect.
Register for an account with AusTender which is www.tenders.gov.au and you can set up notifications by identifying areas that you are interested in, where emails will then be sent to you as new tender opportunities are published.
Every state and territory in Australia has a similar service, for example www.tenders.sa.gov.au (replace with sa with vic, nt etc.) so again register with account (we have one for all jurisdictions) and receive email notifications straight to you inbox.
If you are interested in exploring government grants, funding and incentives, follow the relevant Australian Government, State and Territory Ministers on socials as they will often announce an initiative in a press release and that can give you a heads up on what might come next. Also review information from the budgets including mid-year and if you are really keen you can read the budget papers in detail to see what funds have been allocated where.
Another consideration is your local council, for example the City of Onkaparinga where I live and work (one of the offices anyway) has ON Small Business Grants for starting up and marketing. Also working in Western Adelaide and the city, the City of Charles Sturt provides amazing support to local businesses with grants, packages and scholarships. Local government often has excellent events and networking opportunities, sometimes I’m surprised that people in business don’t know which council they are based in and/or the economic development team members.
If you have a Chief Entrepreneur like South Australia with Jim Whalley and strategy like FIXE and/or a Department that supports trade, economic development and business growth, then follow all of them on socials (Twitter can be popular here) and connect on LinkedIn with key people.
Subscribe to enews and updates so you and/or a team member can be on top of what is coming out as this changes weekly and there are many programs and initiatives addressing the impact of COVID 19 on business.
The other tip is sometimes grants and funding can be a bit like going to Kmart… where when you go shopping there you let the shop and their products speak to you rather than only going to shop for very specific items.
Finally be open minded about what you might look at – many funding opportunities are related to program or service delivery and this could be a way to try new things out in your business whilst making a real difference.
PS. A great opportunity that is currently available for SMEs in South Australia is up to $10 000 for SME Business Advisory Services.