This is an awesome guest post from Ethan Benjamin. You can learn more about Ethan at the end of the post.
As per an insightful study undertaken in USA several years back, it had been found that around 9.1 million women in USA has their own businesses. However there has been a 68% increase in this number since 1997. Yet, most women business owners are being rejected loans by banks for their small businesses. However, in lieu of all this, many other options have come up, such as online loans, peer-to-peer loans, government grants and crowd funding, to help these women entrepreneurs expand their business horizon. Government grants are not very popular since they consume a lot of time and work in the funding process, yet they are becoming the more used option amongst women.
Know the Small Business Grants
Business owners often seek the help of government grants to start a business as it is considered as free money and that you don’t even have to pay for that. However, most of the business owners assume that the funds for the grant are a simple procedure. However, it is rather a long and technical procedure. There are grants for all areas of business such as medical, science, technology, education, but there are no federal grants solely for women.
If you are a business woman looking for funds to help start up your small business you should research for grant programs on a state level, instead of a federal level. Most state level grant programs provide funds mainly to women. Every site of the state has a segment for business grants for minority owned businesses and women. To research about where to get small business grants, Minority Business Development Agency is a site to visit. On the site, grants can be researched on for helping women fund their small businesses.
Private Grants for Women
- The Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant Program – According to this five grants are awarded annually to only 100 per cent women owned businesses. All these women owned businesses should adhere to the principles of sustainability, modernization, and advancement. Last year due to this program $125,000 grants had been provided.
- Huggies Brand (Mom Inspired Grants) – This provides small business grants for women for up to $15,000. Furthermore, the people who receive this grant use the money to help develop products to promote motherhood needs.
- Amber Grant for Women Business Owners – The aim of this grant is to help young women achieve their dreams. Amber was a young entrepreneur who passed away at a very young age. The grant was built to help such woman. The grants provided from $500 to $1000 will help women to pay all the important expenses.
- American Association of University Women (abbreviated as AAUW) – Established in the year 1881, it provides funds from $2,000 to $30,000 in the form of 6 varying fellowships. It helps teachers, industrial women and activists from all around the world.
- FedEx Think Bigger (Small Business Grant Program) – A maximum of $75,000 is provided in the form of grant funds. A segment of this is given to all the women who share their perception on how they will use the money for the benefit of their business.
- Grants.gov – These are funds provided through state and local government programs. The amount funded as per the grant depends on the requirement of the business owner.
- Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Grants – These are grants provided via the US small business Administrator and is provided to businesses that are operating in the fields of engineering, technology, science and manufacturing.
- Idea Café Small Business Grant – It is a site that has many different people who grant fund to the needy. It’s most recent grant involves the 16th Small Business Cash Grant, in which up to $1,000 of grants are awarded to the most innovative businesses.
- Innovate HER (- 2015 Innovating for Women Business Challenge) – This grant has been sponsored by the SBA (Small Business Administration) Office of Women’s Business Ownership. There are 3 winners in this competition who individually win $30,000 to help flourish the businesses that help improve the lives of women.
- Belle Capital USA – It is a grant that funds businesses that have a minimum of one female founder or high level executives. Their main aim is to provide funds in technology, Digital health, and CleanTech industries.
- Chase Google (Mission Main Street Project) – This is a Program, which is an alliance of Chase and Google and provides a total of $3 million in funds. The people who receive the money even had a chance to visit the headquarters of Google. They further got a $2,000 coupon for market research studies with Google and a Chromebook Laptop.
Ways to Apply for Grants
Once the programs have been read about and selected then, some steps have to be followed to apply for the grants to start small businesses.
- Make sure you are eligible for getting grants – read all the detailed information about the grants, along with all the guidelines, criteria for eligibility and process for applying.
- Make a checklist – make sure to gather all the documents that are needed and keep them ticked off on the list.
- Follow all the rules and regulations – These documents are long, tedious and very technical. Try and verify the documents two to three times, just so make sure the documents have been filled properly.
- Be an early bird – start the procedure early. So that there are no last minute problems.
Being part of a small business can be a rather expensive challenge, especially for women business owners who have to go through even more issues than the males. For a woman business owner, it’s essential to understand that you may pass the eligibility requirements to apply for free small business grants. These grants are very competitive, so it is crucial to follow all instructions so that you can make sure that your grant application is examined.
About the Author:
Hello! I am, Ethan Benjamin, a representative of 48 Factoring Inc. (https://www.48factoring.com). I am fond of writing as this is the best way one can express his thoughts. Being in the Finance industry, I have been writing articles related to current financial trends. I am currently focusing on creating unique and useful content for my company and the audiences. I love reading and sharing everything about this wide industry that I am associated with. For more update connect with me on twitter and Facebook.