Paying for Grant Finding service?

[Twolfe]

Hi

I am looking at what grants or funding may be available for my business (business growth, not start-up) and I came across this website ukbusinessgrants.org I called them and apparently there's a fee of 2 x £90 to receive information about what grants and funding is available. Has anyone used this company and what are your thoughts about paying for a grant finding service?

Thanks in advance

 

[OldWelshGuy]

where are you based? There are free government sign posting services available.

What sort of funding are you looking for? in Wales there is a load of money for development R&D, etc, but there is also convergence funding available in many parts of the UK

 

[Twolfe]

I'm based in the West Midlands and there are two reasons I am looking at grants or funding

1. To set-up and offer Free Social Media workshops to individuals and small start-up businesses. The grant would be for advertising and studio rent

2. Funding to take my business to the next level. Currently I'm owner of a digital agency, with myself being the only employee I also use of freelancers. Funding would be for more studio space, wages (employment of two full time staff) and computer equipment.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

£180? I'll spend a half hour on Google for that.

 

[Michael-Bush]

Whatever you, don't pay them! You can find that out for free yourself...

Michael

 

[OldWelshGuy]

speak to these people http://www.advantagewm.co.uk/about-awm/default.aspx they are regional development agency for the west midlands area. If there is funding there, then they should be able to send you in the right direction. there is also funding available based on social type,ethnicity, and age. but they will be able to help you (or should be)

 

[Twolfe]

Thanks for your input guys. The rep I spoke to suggested there are 1000 grants / funding opportunities in their database. I'd be happy to pay £180 if I had assurance they were legitimate and trustworthy, would save on days on Google searching I imagine but I also feel slightly skeptical about the company. Would be great if anyone here has used their services and could provide feedback.

 

[Partnership Telecom]

I did some work for a drug agency a few years ago and they employed 'grant chasers' to go out, identify suitable grants, complete the applications and submit the forms. They did this for a percentage, if they didn't succeed then they didn't get paid. If you would be happy with this type of arrangement my advice would be google a few terms like grant consultant and start asking questions.

 

[Billmccallum]

Thanks for your input guys. The rep I spoke to suggested there are 1000 grants / funding opportunities in their database. I'd be happy to pay £180 if I had assurance they were legitimate and trustworthy, would save on days on Google searching I imagine but I also feel slightly skeptical about the company. Would be great if anyone here has used their services and could provide feedback.

There are around 1000 grants available in the UK, but they are for specific purposes, most will be for new businesses, expanding businesses that create or safeguard jobs or R&D....VERY FEW are for small businesses looking to expand.

AWM has already been mentioned, they also look after european funding (ESF & ERDF), so they might know of a programme in your area... your local council would be the next call, they will know of any local initiatives.

It might be worthwhile contacting the Jobcentre, they have programmes to get people back into work and might have something that offers employers incentives.

Finally, business link, should have grant info on their web site.

If you have a really exciting project that captures the imagination, there are other routes, feel free to drop me a PM with some details of your plans and I will try to offer advice.

 

[obscure]

The rep I spoke to suggested there are 1000 grants / funding opportunities in their database.

As Bill pointed out those 1000 grants will almost all be limited to specific sectors or for specific use or for companies in a specific region.

If you divide the country into South West, South East, East Midland, West Mid, North East, North West, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland many grants will be specific to just one region. So split that 1000 across all the regions and the region you are in probably only has 110 grants available. In fact most of them will be limited to the areas the government or EU think need the most economic assistance (Middlesbrough is a great place to get grants). So, if you are in a prosperous area the number of grants available will be much lower.

Of those grants available in your region many will be limited to specific sectors such as IT or media or whatever the regional development agency has chosen as the key industries for their region. For example I worked with the East Midlands Media Agency (EM-Media) and they had grants that were limited to the media industry (film, TV, games and internet), which they were trying to grow as an alternative to the dead coal and car making industries.

Many more will be limited to specific uses. For example the UKTI used to offer grants but only for use in relation to exporting. You could get a grant to attend an overseas conference or to undertake marketing aimed at overseas clients, but you couldn't use it for the day to day running/growth of your business. Likewise the regional development agency offered grants but only for IT purchases and only to certain sectors.

Once you whittle out the grants you can't apply for due to location and sector that list of 1000 will actually be less than a handful that you might be able to apply for and most will be limited to a specific use that excludes the day t day running/growth of your buisness. Don't waste money paying to get access to a list of 1000 grants you won't be able to apply for. Instead talk to Advantage West Midlands for free.

 

[A.McVitty]

Twolfe,

Try the following link. It should provide some useful information on what grants are available.

www.j4bgrants.co.uk

You will have to register but its free and it produced some success for a company I used to work for looking for research & development funding.

Good luck.

 

[Twolfe]

Thanks to everyone for your information. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[cloudlineconsulting]

As mentioned by one member already,the business link site should be a good first starting point as they can help you find out about what schemes are available and then whether you might be eligible to apply. There are a good many government funded support schemes under the banner Solutions for Business, which might give you somewhere to start before paying out for a service to tell you a similar thing.. Peter

 

[Deleted member 55443]

I feel I have been conned into signing up to UKbusinessgrants.org, the women on the telephone was very charming and the website has many testimonials.

The company will even refund you the full amount if you find a grant and get a sucessfull result in your application provided you let them make a video of you. (1 in a million chance considering there are so many businesses chasing few grants)

I could not find any ukbusinessgrants.org reviews online so I feel compelled to tell you that after you sign up to their database (which I think is rarely updated) you will discover there are only a handfull of grants for your business criteria in the search results.

After you go through the search results you will discover some grants are peanuts (i.e. £500 GRANT) and 99% of grants do not fit your criteria.

Bottom line save yourself the hassle and £300 or so pounds and DO NOT BOTH HER USING UKBUSINESSGRANTS.ORG they are almost like a scam selling a worthless database that you can research with in 30-40 minutes of googling.

What is funny is they have registered their website under the domain name .org (which can initially appear like they are the good guys) but after a while you discover they are playing on the fact that there may be people out there who are desperate for funding. They even pay a lot for their google ads and seo to come up in the rankings so that they can trick more people into beliving there are loads of grants waiting for them.

Needless to say I was only exploring the funding options to speed up growth. Our company is doing extremely well for the momment - we are in the online travel sector.