Staying with the theme of finances, I wanted to share some valuable resources with you, that I often refer my clients to when they’re looking for business grants to support the start up or scale up of their business.
I have four main resources of grant funding that I’ll share in today’s article, starting with the Business & Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC), Oxfordshire.
You may know that I recently held the launch of my book, ‘105 Ways to Accelerate Your Business Success’, at the BIPC part of the Oxfordshire County Library,. And whilst there I discovered the vast amount of information available to business owners in the county. A media centre and photography equipment, online and face to face business and intellectual property support, co-working desks and databases…
No matter your business focus or stage the of development your business is at, I’m sure the BIPC will have the support you’re looking for. For business funding in Oxfordshire, we’re looking at GrantFinder in this article.
BIPC GrantFinder
‘Grantfinder is Europe’s leading grants and policy database, including information about awards, loans and grants from local, regional and national sources, including:
- UK government
- corporate sponsors
- charitable trusts.
Other assistance includes:
- loans
- venture capital
- rate relief
- tax relief
- export insurance
- awards
- advisory services
- information services.’
Access to this support and the databases are primarily through the centres themselves. I recommend a meeting with one of the team, so you’ll need to take some time to visit either Oxfordshire County Library, Blackbird Leys or Bicester libraries and ask a staff member to log you in and share some usage tips with you. Some of the databases of interest may be accessible online using your library card details.
Simply Business – Small business grants
The BIPC site references Simply Business as an alternative to accessing funding for small businesses in Oxfordshire. You can access free guides and for the purpose of this article, a list of sources of small business funding you don’t have to pay back! You will need to register with your email address on their website, to read the full list.
Government finance and support for your business
Also pointed to from the BIPC, there are 1-2-1 schemes available to businesses in the UK, on the Department for Trade and Business page of the Government website. Admittedly, not all schemes are for Oxfordshire based businesses, so you’ll have to scroll through to find the ones that are most relevant to your business. But, you might find links such as Better Business Finance – UK and the Digital Growth Grant interesting…
And finally… Innovaction Global
This company interests me as they don’t offer grants themselves, however they do offer a fantastic service and proven experience to help you apply for grants. On their website, Innovaction say, ‘Innovaction Global is an innovation consulting company that helps organisations grow and improve their performance. We support businesses in securing grant funding and managing R&D projects that transform ideas into new revenues. We also provide coaching to improve the skills of existing teams in preparing successful grant applications.’
The founder Monika also has many connections for further grant funding especially for innovative businesses.
The ‘Science of Getting Grants’ course is something that you or your team can take if you apply for a lot of grants and want to really refine your applications.
I hope this has been useful to signpost you to possible grant funding. Whilst I can’t help you fund your business myself, I do enjoy helping entrepreneurs think through their options and make important decisions. If you’d like someone to act as sounding board, someone who has experience of their own to draw on, and previous experience of helping others, then let’s have a call.