Did you know the East Midlands Development Agency is currently giving away £10,000 to local businesses? Or that Sheffield City Council is offering a share of £100,000 to small companies in the area? The chances are most of you will have said no.
Millions upon millions of pounds of government money is poured into schemes and initiatives aimed at funding small and medium sized businesses. But just how much of that cash ends up unclaimed? A lot of it I'm guessing!
The main reason why money doesn't end up where it should is because entrepreneurs simply don't know about it. Even the authorities tasked with handing out the funds admit that. Last year, I had a chat with an official from a development agency during the launch of HSBC's Start up Stars competition. He admitted that much of the money his organisation is allocated goes unclaimed and then gets siphoned off elsewhere never to be seen again.
Funnily enough commercially-backed scheme like HSBC's get large amounts of publicity and attract thousands of entrants every year. Why can't the government do the same?
Earlier this week, I attended a press briefing about software firm Sage's latest small business research. Present at the event was Kerry Keeling, a successful entrepreneur and founder of construction company A Woman's Touch.
I asked her whether she had got hold of any government funding. Guess what? No! "I just haven't had the time to find details of the schemes," she admitted - words that will ring true with thousands of entrepreneurs all around the UK.
Admittedly, she revealed that she has applied for one scheme but the application was so convoluted and she couldn't get the money for ages that she gave up.
So what needs to be done? One single source for grant details would be a good start. Admittedly, you can search for schemes on the Business Link website but the words "The grants and support directory shows a selection of programmes that are available" indicates that not all initiatives are included.
BusinessZone is trying raise awareness through our Grant Watch feature and its popularity suggests entrepreneurs are craving information in this area.
But we're not the government, we're not offering the money and we can't possibly know about everything that's available.
The revamping of the Business Link service into a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about starting and running an SME is good news but the process is going very slowly.
So come on ministers, in the words of Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire - Show me the money!
Millions upon millions of pounds of government money is poured into schemes and initiatives aimed at funding small and medium sized businesses. But just how much of that cash ends up unclaimed? A lot of it I'm guessing!
The main reason why money doesn't end up where it should is because entrepreneurs simply don't know about it. Even the authorities tasked with handing out the funds admit that. Last year, I had a chat with an official from a development agency during the launch of HSBC's Start up Stars competition. He admitted that much of the money his organisation is allocated goes unclaimed and then gets siphoned off elsewhere never to be seen again.
Funnily enough commercially-backed scheme like HSBC's get large amounts of publicity and attract thousands of entrants every year. Why can't the government do the same?
Earlier this week, I attended a press briefing about software firm Sage's latest small business research. Present at the event was Kerry Keeling, a successful entrepreneur and founder of construction company A Woman's Touch.
I asked her whether she had got hold of any government funding. Guess what? No! "I just haven't had the time to find details of the schemes," she admitted - words that will ring true with thousands of entrepreneurs all around the UK.
Admittedly, she revealed that she has applied for one scheme but the application was so convoluted and she couldn't get the money for ages that she gave up.
So what needs to be done? One single source for grant details would be a good start. Admittedly, you can search for schemes on the Business Link website but the words "The grants and support directory shows a selection of programmes that are available" indicates that not all initiatives are included.
BusinessZone is trying raise awareness through our Grant Watch feature and its popularity suggests entrepreneurs are craving information in this area.
But we're not the government, we're not offering the money and we can't possibly know about everything that's available.
The revamping of the Business Link service into a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about starting and running an SME is good news but the process is going very slowly.
So come on ministers, in the words of Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire - Show me the money!
