Grants and Scholarships

Where do you find new business grants to apply for online??

I am a young female looking to start a new business in Maine, and I can't seem to find any grants to apply for anywhere!!! Please help!!

Public Comments

1. I think there might only be loans from the SBA. Unless you are a prized minority.
2. http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html for grants and http://www.npguides.com/ for help in learning how to write proposals.
3. I'm in Maine as well. Check with the Small Business Administration http://www.sba.gov/financing for government guaranteed loans. Read the SBA Financing page to learn about criteria needed for borrowing It is hard to find grants to start or grow a business. Unlike what you may heard or read, federal government and even private foundations hardly ever provide grant money for starting a for-profit business. One possible exception is for companies developing or exporting agricultural goods, including food and forest product. Another exception could be the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/... , which fund the research and development of technological innovation that meets specific government needs. Your best bet actually will be from the states if they offer grant programs for women (or any other special interest groups -- minorities, women, disabled, veterans, etc). Or check with non profit organizations, particularly women organizations if they offer grants. Examples include Iowa Women's Foundation http://www.iawf.org/ New Mexico Women's Foundation http://www.nmwf.org/guidelines.html You can also go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture. The listings are constantly changing, but I’ve never found a lisitng for the type of grant you are seeking. Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (for instance, minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program) Please be aware that there is an entire industry that thrives on people seeking grants. These companies lead you to believe that you’ll easily qualify for a grants once they teach you how to do it. Of course, they want an up-front payment and a monthly fee to access their “database”. These types of companies do not provide anything that you cannot get for free at grants.gov. Don’t pay for this information. It is available free. Good luck to you!
4. There are many other grants for small businesses that don't require the techniques below, but these are some of the simplest to implement. The following ideas are especially important if you are looking for grants for small businesses in the shortest possible time. 1. Clearly demonstrate public benefit. This is one of the most powerful ways to obtain grants for small businesses. Almost any small business utilize this technique. Think about your business, or the project within your business for which you are seeking a grant. Is there a way you can demonstrate that you are offering the public, or a specific community, a benefit? There are many grants for small businesses that can demonstrate that their business provides a public benefit. For instance, if your business sells computers and computer equipment, can you use part of your business profits every year to purchase and donate computers to inner city schools? Can your dental office offer free teeth cleaning to 3 families that lack insurance per month? This is far easier than you would think. I know of a shooting range that received a grant to build a new facility because they were offering "shooting lessons" to young rural kids, regardless of income, on Saturday morning, rather than getting involved in delinquent behaviors. 2. The letter of affiliation. This is a powerful strategy that can be used in conjunction with a 501c3 non profit organization to obtain grants for small businesses. With this strategy, your small business provides services to a non profit organization, who in turn "co-signs" for the grant you are applying for, stating in writing that your business needs this grant money in order to effectively provide them services. This causes you to become eligible for many more grants than you would on your own (non-profits are eligible for many more grants than for-profit businesses). A good example of this is a client of mine who wanted to purchase sound equipment and open his own recording studio. So he partnered with a non-profit who wanted to use his services and equipment for their fund raising rallies. They wrote a letter of affiliation stating that he actually needed the equipment in order to provide them with this service, which gave him much more of a chance to receive grant money from organizations who only wanted to give to non-profits. 3. Form a 501c3. Before you write this off as being too difficult, let me explain. It is relatively easy to get 501c3/non-profit status for just one division of your company, which can operate in partnership with your for-profit business. With this 501c3 "division" you will be able to funnel grant money into development, research, marketing, personnel, or any other part of your business that you wish, if you structure it properly. The problem is, most of the time it takes many months and thousands of dollars to form a 501c3. However, there is an easy way to get 501c3 status that is unknown to many business people and entrepreneurs, within a few weeks at relatively little expense. I explain in detail how to do this, and many more small business grant strategies on my website http://www.freegrantdollars.com/grantsforsmallbusinesses . Grants for small businesses are very much possible to obtain, but you must know certain strategies and tactics to be able to do it successfully.
5. Greg R has copied the standard answer I typically give to this type of question. Here's my exact answer I gave 2 months ago that Greg R has copied (he just added 1 paragraph to make his answer "unique") http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvQtPJw_EI7zNDUO5.PK_oAjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20070815125354AAlaVnm It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for starting a for-profit business. You can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture. Here is a listing of federal grants for small businesses. See if there is any available for individuals for starting a business -- THERE'S NONE. http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.BROWSE_BENEF_RPT.show Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs I suggest you read the following books to get ideas of how to finance your business: Financing Your Small Business http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572484500/powerhomebizguid Small Business Financing: How and Where To Get It http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0808007386/powerhomebizguid Financing the Small Business: A Complete Guide to Obtaining Bank Loans and All Other Types of Financing http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580626815/powerhomebizguid The SBA Loan Book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158062202X/powerhomebizguid Angel Capital : How to Raise Early-Stage Private Equity Financing http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471690635/powerhomebizguid Financing Your Small Business (Barron's Business Library Series) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764124897/powerhomebizguid For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center's Foundation Grants for Individuals Online http://gtionline.fdncenter.org . It's a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for "students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices." Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don't have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.