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Assess your grant eligibility
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To be eligible for grants your business must satisfy certain
criteria. Location Many grants are location specific.
There are several schemes that operate across the whole of the UK, and are
available to all businesses that satisfy the outline criteria, but in addition
to these there are a myriad of schemes that are administered locally. Thus the
location of your business will be absolutely crucial, and funding that might be
available to you will be strongly dependent on the area into which you intend
to grow or develop. Additional grants may also be available to a business
investing in or into an area of social deprivation, particularly if it involves
sustainable job creation. Business The nature of your organisation will
also determine what funding is available to you. Most business grants are
pitched directly at limited companies, partnerships and sole traders - and in
some cases co-operatives. Industry In order to satisfy the local
economic or political agenda, many funding schemes are allocated towards the
development of particular industry sectors. Grant purpose It is unlikely that a grant will
be available to a business for them to do what they like with the funding.
Grants are usually available for specific purposes, for example exporting,
relocation costs or perhaps investment in plant and machinery. Company size The majority of grants are
designated to support small and medium-sized businesses. There are a number of
definitions of a small firm. Since 1996 the European Commission has worked from
a recommended description of SMEs based on maximum number of employees,
turnover and balance sheet. For a company to qualify as small or medium it must
meet two of the three criteria in any year. Other restrictions In order to benefit from
funding, your business and your project will usually have to satisfy extra
criteria in addition to being located in a particular area and operating within
a certain industry sector. This could range from a requirement to have been
trading for less than 18 months, to restrictions on what suppliers might be
used on a specific project.
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