Are There Really Grants Available to Start a Business

In order business you need a lot of money. There are so many expenses that you have to take care of. There are things such as salaries, rent, equipment, supplies, utilities, advertising etc. The costs are huge. Plain and simple: if you do not have the money to cover the costs your business will fail.

Some people may try to cover these initial costs out of pocket or from donations from friends and family but this is almost impossible. The costs are generally too great. Start-up is usually the most expensive part of running a business. So, unless of course you have very wealthy friends and family willing to give you money and are very wealthy yourself, you likely won't have enough cash to start a business without some help. If you do not have the resources you will have to find something else. So where do you go for money?

There are many places that you can go to get money. These would be places such as banks or from a venture capitalist. You should evaluate your costs and what you are trying to do and then choose the best program for you to help you finance your business. You need to cover the costs somehow and if you can't do it out of your own pocket then you need to find another way.

One thing that many people wonder about is if there are grants available for starting businesses. Grants would be nice because you get the money you need without having to pay it back. Loans and such you have to pay back plus interest so although you have the money you need now, you have to have a plan to make the money and pay it back later.

The answer about whether or not you can get grants for starting a business is yes. There is three hundred and fifty billion dollars worth of free grants from the government given out each year. Some state development agencies also offer grants. But just because there are a lot of grants available does not mean they are super easy to get. In fact, because they are essentially "free money" you really have to work hard to get it, and prove that you are not just trying to pull one over.

Though these grants can be to help you with your business a lot of grants though will not be given to you for starting or developing a business. They are more for different types of organizations or for different specific groups. But even if you are not part of these specific organizations or groups you cannot give up all hope because there really are grants available for whatever it is you are doing, if you can find them.

Some grants will cover a fraction of your start-up cost but they will not give you one hundred percent of the cost. So if you need one hundred percent covered then you probably will want to try and apply for a grant, but plan on getting the rest of the money elsewhere. They may cover something like twenty five percent but then you need to come up with the other seventy five percent. So, in these cases, if you have no way to cover the difference, then applying for a grant is of little value, as you won't get it, or you will have to give it back if you don't get the rest.

Another thing these grants have is specific regulations. They have specific things and such that the grant could be used for. They will not just give you the money; you have to use it for a specific purpose. This would be very inconvenient because maybe you qualify to receive the money but you miss out on one regulation such as being Native American so you cannot receive that grant.

So if you are wondering whether or not you can receive a grant the answer is yes but do your research. You won't qualify for many grants, and trying to would be a lot of work and you would have to be very specific with what you used it for. Though there are billions of dollars given out for grants those do not all go specifically to small businesses and the portion that is given is very specific.

If you were looking to finance your business your best bet would be to try out a bank loan or something of that sort, and maybe supplemented with a little grant money. It would be hard to find a grant and may not be worth the time and effort if all that is going to happen is that they will give you a tiny portion of what you actually need. So evaluate your time and finance needs and determine what is best for you.