Business Starting Grants

Are there any grants to help start up a childcare business? I need seed money to get started.?

I'm also looking to add to the daycare a teacher that specializes in Special Ed. and had a 3.9 when she graduated, all A's in her math classes. Trig, Algebra, Calculus were her classes and she has national certification. Any ideas? We want to have children ages 2-12.

Public Comments

1. The only grant you can find is very minimal, typically not more than $500 from your state. In Maryland, there is a Family Day Care Provider Grant Program, administered by the MSDE Office of Child Care (OCC), which gives $500 to registered family child care providers to offset many of the costs of opening their child care programs. http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/child_care/grants/ It is hard to find grants to start a business, including daycares. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK - lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born. Nonetheless, 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. Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants -- all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same - hardly any grants for starting a for profit business. Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html "The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments." 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.