Sig Biz Advisors

There are over 600 different grants and ‘soft loans’ available to UK businesses provided by over 100 different organisations. Sig Biz Advisors works with leading grant specialists from the Institute for Independent Business (IIB) to provide companies with the best in class service. Sources providing grants include local & national government, the European Union and charitable foundations. The specialist service of the IIB applies and negotiates for grants every day of the year. It is an unfortunate fact that many companies do not get the grant they deserve because their presentation left out critical information or did not present their case in the optimal manner.

Creating jobs, training employees, buying capital equipment, developing premises, developing exports, developing products, market research, marketing, quality, design you name it and there's likely to be a grant covering it.

Many providers of grants and subsidised loans actually discriminate in favour of SMEs (small and middle sized companies). Despite this fact most grant money goes to big companies. The reason is that most SMEs either do not know about the grants or apply for them in the wrong manner and are then rejected. To maximise your probability of success you need expert help from those who regularly apply for grants.

Soft Loans are loans offered on more favourable terms than those available commercially. The ways they differ from commercial loans can vary. Typically they will have one or more of the following characteristics:

• a lower rate of interest. Some EU subsidised loans may charge less than half the rate of a high street bank.
• A repayment holiday before you must start repaying.
• Offering to act as a guarantor or otherwise arrange for a business loan without the need for you to provide security

The benefit of a grant over a loan is blindingly obvious – you don’t have to repay a grant providing you stick to the agreed rules!

Whilst this is true, be aware that grants are rarely offered for more than 20% of the total cost whilst Soft Loans will typically offer up to 50%, and occasionally as much as 75% towards the cost. Discretion on the use of the money within the overall agreement may also be greater when using a subsidised loan as opposed to a grant.

Grants and soft loans are established by the various funding agencies for specific purposes, but almost all depend on the degree of "additionality" the grant will enable.

Additionality is a word you will find only in the Dictionary of Grantese. It means that the issuance of a grant will permit you to put a project forward faster, start it earlier, or fund a project that might otherwise not be within your means and sometimes a combination of all three. Another important point about grants is that they are not available for something that, in the normal course of business, you would do anyway.

Whilst the speeding up of a project may be grounds for a grant you should be aware that if this is viewed as the only benefit arising then usually the amount granted will be a lower proportion of the total project cost.

From the time all supporting information has been submitted grants typically take between 2 and 4 months to be given. Note that delays are often caused by not submitting all required information on the first attempt. Also grants will not be given for a project that is already started, unless the grant was specifically for a defined future phase.

Contact Sig Biz Advisors. We can discuss the basic facts over the telephone. An initial consultation is free. We can then take more detailed information in confidence and advise on the likelihood of success and the best path to follow. When applying for larger grants it is advisable to use experts to assist your application. For such applications Sig Biz Advisors can bring in experts on a "no win no fee" basis.