Business Starting Grants

What is the best way to go about getting a small business grant?

I am trying to start a used book store business and need help understanding the whole grant process. Thank you in advance for your help. Lauren Or if there are any good women's grants websites please let me know. Thank you!

Public Comments

1. Start with - there are no federal grants for small business start-ups with a few minor exceptions for cutting edge tech companies and possibly still a few day care grants. At the state level, the present budget crunch has pretty much all but wiped out the grants - try your local economic development agency to see if they know of any state grants or any grants from private foundations, but don't get your hopes up. If you should stumble across a grant that you think you might qualify for, you need to contact the grant officer (the name/number should be locatable wherever you found the grant) and contact them as to the application procedure. When you get the application form, fill it out exactly as they ask and include everything they ask for. Omission of any information or a mis-filled in application is usually grounds for disqualification. Your best bet is to produce a business plan that you can take to a lender and ask about SBA guaranteed business loans. These tend to be easier to get than just a regular business loan. There is much info regarding business plans at the SBA web page at http://www.sba.gov and you can contact SCORE for further help, guidance and mentoring at http://www.score.org