Writing A Business Plan:
SBA Business Grants -- Yes! They Are Available

The term "SBA business grants" can be misleading. Yes, the grants are there, but they are not where you would expect.

The Small Business Administration's Best Kept Secret

Shhhhh. Don't tell more than a few thousand people about this, or we will run out of  business grants. Here are two websites you need to bookmark:

SBA Page on Business Grants

The U.S. Federal Government page on Grants.

The SBA business grants page lists about 30-40 agencies that give business grants, sometimes even to start up businesses. Settle down with a cup o' tea for this one.  These are not "SBA grants" in the sense that the SBA distributes the money, but they can be found via the SBA website.  This is what most people mean when they refer to "SBA grants".

 

The U.S. Federal Government page is a search page that includes thousands of grants that are available on thousands of topics. I could not believe what came through as "hits" when I did searches.

For example, I searched on the word "embroidery", and came up with nothing. Not surprising. So I searched on the word "sewing" and got 2 hits! One for a $18-22 million grant to develop "real life skills" for junior high aged students in Indonesia. The other was for a $21 million grant for storm damage mitigation in Haiti, which included replacing damaged sewing machines.

" Teaching" got 55 hits. "Soccer" got 1 hit, but "sports" got 20 hits. There was a strong demand for internet-savvy folks, with "web sites" getting 555 hits, "develop web sites" getting 1,331 hits, and "internet searching" with 356 hits. Even "start up business" got 400 hits.

A lot of these projects were overseas and many required special skills. I doubt, for instance, that "developing web sites" was the only task in those grant projects; the projects likely included a bunch else too.

Many of These SBA Business Grants, and Grants from Other Agencies, Have the "Need" Already Identified

Many of these SBA business grants have the job, the "need", already specified, as do most of the business grants from other agencies. They are looking for a person/company that can come in and fill that need. 

Some, like the scientist and the pre-school teacher noted above, do fund your dream. Even so, it's pretty unlikely that you will find an SBA business grant to fund your ice cream parlor franchise. (But, hey, if your ice cream parlor is going to be in a disadvantaged rehabilitation zone, there may be any number of SBA business grants available, as well as grants from local and regional authorities.)

Buying a Grants Directory

Now is when it becomes okay to buy one of those directories that I referred to above with such disfavor. 

Finding business grants is not easy. In fact, the difficulty is compounded because there are so many places to look. There is the federal government, the state government, the local government, charitable organizations, corporations that are good citizens in their respective communities, and any number of coalitions of these entities. In spite of what the SBA says, it does give grants to special groups: it funds organizations like WNET (women's groups) and MESBICs (venture capital for minority groups).

Yes, a huge amount of information is on the internet, and in your local library. But, unless you have a super fast internet connection, having the information on your hard drive will make the search so much easier.

Look for a directory that includes charitable organizations, as well as governmental organizations. For an inexpensive directory that covers a lot of bases, I suggest the Online Grants Directory. This directory includes SBA business grants, and grants from thousands of other agencies and organizations.

Happy hunting.

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Also see:

If your company is purely profit based, and not likely to qualify for a grant, look to angel investors, the Small Business Administration, or venture capital.

For a summary of funding options, check out the summary of sources for small business financing.