Business Starting Grants

What grants are availible to new business starters?

I am planning on starting a new business and what to know what grants are availible to me

Public Comments

1. Check out the SBA-Small Business Administration. Also call SCORE, they are retired professionals who offer free workshops and advice for new businesses. And a link below is regional for me but check it out and maybe there is something similar where you are. Good luck!
2. I have 2 small businesses out of my home and I am a female minority. When I wanted to start my business I got a book by the guy below. He's crazy looking and wears suits with question marks all over them but he knows his stuff. This book is called Free Money for just about everything. You can probably get it at the library. But anyway it gives a breakdown by Federal State and County fundings for where you live that assist in small business loans. They even have a section that talks about if your business involves certain things then other individuals will give you money. Like say you run a shelter....as long as you adopt say a certain breed out, then like the rescues might help fund you. Stuff like that. It has a ton of information on free money for other stuff as well. I paid like $45 but I still use it for reference a lot.
3. 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 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 For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center's Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. 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.