Sunday, November 1, 2009

Home Based Business Grants


There are a whole host of individuals and potential home based business owners who have been searching for grant money which, they hope, will provide them with the necessary means to start their home based business. Some companies will market to these consumers using terms like "free money" to entice them. With all of these companies making it seem so easy to get free grant money for your business, why would you not want to partake in the spoils?

When trying to find free money grants for your home-based business, your best bet is to proceed with caution. That is because technically, free money does exists, but you may need to read the fine print. Small business owners and entrepreneurs can actually get free grants from the millions of dollars of funds available to them. The majority of these grants come from private institutions, the government and nongovernmental organizations. The amount of grant money paid out varies between $5,000 to six figures. And the most amazing thing about the grant money is no one requires you to pay it back.

However, the vast majority of institutions which fund these grants do not offer free money at all. Businesses such as the Bank of America Foundation or the Small Business Association will not provide capital for small businesses such as clothing design or day cares, etc. And they will not provide small business grants to anyone who wants to start a "for profit" company. Rather, these funding groups will generally utilize their grant funds to target specific organizations, activities or groups. For example, the SBA grants are usually provided to educational institutes or nonprofit organizations. The Bank of America Foundation will consider requests by nonprofits that are in a geographic area that they have strong business presence in. If they come across a business or nonprofit which falls in line with the objectives and goals of their organization, most funding institutions will provide what is called "project" funding.

There are also small amounts of grant funding institutions that will give individuals money directly. The drawback, though, is that you need to use the grant money in a way that remains consistent with the funding institutions objectives. And because these are project-based grants, a lot of organizations may require you to provide some of the funding on your own. As for using grants to fund your home-based business, they may only cover a small portion of what you actually need. Only on rare occasions will the cover the entire cost to start your business. For example, the Indian Grant Program provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs offers individuals up to $100,000 to develop businesses on reservations that will impact the reservation positively. It also makes clear the fact that only 25% of all costs are covered. So, the individuals then need to provide the other 75% out of their own pockets.



Author: Katie Appleby
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Hybrid and Electric Cars

Orignal From: Home Based Business Grants

No comments:

Post a Comment