why did the jenny start a new business well because he was used to granting wishes
okay let's go ahead and talk about how to get a grant to start a business listen if someone comes
up to you and they say hey i got some free money for you it's probably a scam unless it's a small
business grant because grants are literally free money that business owners can use during
their startup phase of their company during the growth expansion phase of their company or even
for additional research and development but i want to be upfront with you because getting a startup
grant can come with a few cons such as number one it takes time to find a grant that you can
qualify for and actually give you the capital that you need number two it also takes time
for you to actually sit down and apply and then wait for correspondence from the grant officers
and number three sometimes there are limitations with how you can use the grant money like for
example with the ppp loan or the ppp grant you could only use that money on staff rent bills etc
so you should be aware of some of these cons up front that being said i have compiled a small list
of startup grants and credits that you can use to start your small business stay tuned
hey there and welcome to our channel i'm sean with life accounting the accounting company
that saves people from high taxes and low profits the goal today is to help you get your business
up and running with grants to start a small business now most people know what grants are
especially if you're subscribed to our channel but for the small percentage of people who don't let
me quickly explain number one what is a grant and where do they come from okay so a grant is
basically money that is given to a business from a federal state or local government you
can also get a grant from private businesses or corporations who want to support their respective
communities now the great thing about grants is that they do not require any repayment whatsoever
which is ideal for any entrepreneur that has little cash available for their startup but
why in the world would these governments and corporations give away this free grant money
well typically a grant becomes available because a government agency or a non-profit organization
or a private corporation wants to address an area of concern which could be beneficial for
them or come back to haunt them in the long term for example you'll see government agencies set
aside money to support minority entrepreneurship in certain communities because well we fund the
government with our tax dollars and politicians run on the promise to help communities do better
and they actually need to make good on those promises or as another example you'll see
a corporation set aside grant money for research and development that will be instrumental to their
industry and something that they can actually be able to capitalize and leverage later on inside
of their corporation and has another bonus for private businesses or corporations of course
would be the tax deductions as well so there you have it that's what a grant is and that's where
the money comes from and there's a few reasons why the corporations the nonprofits and the
governments willingly give it away now the second thing that we need to talk about is number two
what types of startups normally qualify for grants because listen not everyone can get a
startup grant in fact organizations that run grant programs want to make sure they're giving money to
startups that actually deserve it and will put it to good use and this is very important to remember
especially for later on when we talk about how to actually get and receive a startup business grant
okay but for now you need to know there are usually three groups of startups who typically
can get a grant the first group is a business that belongs to a sort of niche industry and has proven
strong potential for growth for example if there is an innovative startup that is building an app
or a service they could be awarded a technology grant the second group will be a business that
has a positive impact on the world or within a specific community so for a great example here
would be a company that creates a product that will create sustainable energy or green energy
for the world or a company that has a service that is built specifically to help minority children
succeed in education and the third group will be any startup founder or founders who belong
to a marginalized group or have significant economic disadvantage that makes it harder
for them to get ahead when it comes to business for example that could be a disabled veteran
or a black woman owned business or a founder that has been disproportionately affected by
a natural disaster just to name a few but these grants are typically issued to help
level the playing field by giving people with an economic disadvantage equal access to funding now
if your company does not fit into one of these groups you can absolutely still get a grant
but you're gonna have to work a little bit harder at finding the right one okay let's go to get into
some grants so the first grant i have on my list grant number one is the small business innovation
research grant or the sbir grant this grant is funded by the sba that gives startups up to 250
000 in phase one and if phase one goes really well then after about six months recipients can get up
to one million dollars over two years during phase two now the eligibility requirements are perfect
for startups okay you simply need to be number one an organization for profit within the united
states number two the business should be owned and controlled by a u.s citizen or a permanent
resident by more than 50 percent and lastly number three have no more than 500 employees
including affiliates now while almost anyone can apply you need to know that this grant is focused
on research and development within technology innovation so this is one of those groups of
grants that is focused on a specific industry now of course a major pro of this grant is that after
being awarded you can immediately get a contract with a government agency which of course can
secure long-term revenue but as a con it is highly highly competitive as well so you must be very
innovative if you want to check out this grant you can apply at sbir.gov moving on to grant number
two but really quick before i go to grant number two if you appreciate this video and this type of
content please do me a huge favor by hitting the like button for the youtube algorithm it
really helps to spread this video around to more people like you who want to learn about grants for
startups okay grant number two on my list is from the u.s economic development administration or
eda for short this agency has many available grants specifically to provide business owners
with free tools and funding and in my opinion they have the best all-around program that provides
grants to start a small business because they work with a variety of different people in a
variety of different industries for example right now they have a grant that is specifically geared
for travel tourism and recreational startups which is definitely difficult to find anywhere
else now because the eda has such a well-rounded database of grants that means that the eligibility
requirements and the amounts differ from grant to grant so you'll want to research before applying
of course now the pros of going after eda grants are there are so many to choose from even at the
state level but the major con is that because they cast such a wide net finding the right one
the right grant may be a little bit overwhelming now if you want to check this out you can research
and start applying at eda.gov backslash funding dash opportunities okay moving on to number
three which is kind of like a grant but it's really a credit which is opportunity zones
now this is a tax credit that i actually have received during the startup phase of one of my
businesses and it helped us out tremendously because we were able to apply that credit to
parking and office expenses well basically it's when you're operating a business in an
area that needs more economic activity and so in our case our local government was willing to
give our company 3 500 for each job we created within the opportunity zone and we went on to
create over 20 jobs in that area so it definitely definitely was a sizeable credit and it helped us
a lot during our startup phase so if you do have a startup check with your local government and see
if you can build a business in that opportunity zone to help offset some of those startup
costs okay grant number four on my list is the 100 000 sud startup grant from the national
institute of drug abuse this is one of those specific industry grants that applies to anyone
who wants to build a startup to help with substance use abuse so this fits into the group
of grants that is specific to making a positive impact on the world or within a specific community
for this grant there are 10 startups that are selected and they each will get 10 000 to help
fund their startup and if you receive the sud grant then you will be automatically enrolled
in other grant opportunities to help further your startups development which is super awesome
as well now this is a very niche grant and i just have this here to show you an example of
what a niche grant will look like but if you are interested in this specific one then i'll put text
to where you can check it out below okay moving on to grant number five on my list is the back black
businesses grant yes i'm gonna say it okay black entrepreneurs matter okay this is one of those
group of grants that are specific to people who have a significant economic disadvantage due to
their environment and because of that in order to be eligible you need to be a black-owned business
you need to employ between three to 20 people you need to be in an economically vulnerable community
and you must have been harmed in some way by the pandemic and if you qualify and win that
you can be awarded between five thousand twenty five thousand dollars but even more
importantly you will receive free mentorship and business training from other experienced
black owned entrepreneurs and you can apply here at webactblackbusinesses.com now listen there are
hundreds of other grants out there okay i just went over five to show you some examples and get
you to start thinking about some startup grants for your business but by no means is this even
close to being an exhaustive list so definitely take your time and try to find more however on the
other hand if you're having an extremely hard time finding a grant that suits your business needs
there are alternative sources of funding such as getting a bank loan getting a line of credit
or finding a traditional investor now crystal made a great video talking about small business
grants for women so definitely make sure you check that out coming up next or you can check
out my other video on how to successfully win a small business grant and we'll see you over there