Inspired Reality Blog

In a tight economy one of the first responses businesses have is to reduce spending and cut costs across the board. Whilst this a a necessary and prudent approach, it can lead to a stagnation in business growth through a failure to reinvest in and grow your business.

There are options available however which enable you to have the best of both worlds and ensure that you can continue to manage your business expenditure wisely whilst also growing your business (in spite of the difficult times).

One such option is a government grant.  In times when businesses are managing within tight budgets, government grants are an excellent source of additional funding for business development projects. Combining these with some of the tax concessions being offered by the government at the moment, there are a range of opportunities available to help the astute business owner maintain business growth.

There are numerous government grants regularly available for funding of business development projects (too numerous to name them all here).  However to give you a taste of the opportunities available ,  I thought I would share with you a grants program I recently came across being offered to small business owners.

Known as the Work and Family Fresh Ideas grants program the Australian Government is  offering grants of between $5,000 and $15,000 to small businesses to support them in implementing family friendly work practices.

This is just one example of how a business can get free money to support business growth.  The exciting thing is that grants are regularly offered in a range of areas across a range of industries and sectors so with persistence, you are sure to find one to match the development needs of your business.

Having had experience working within government agencies, I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the application process for the Work and Family Fresh Ideas was straightforward.

So  as I regularly state to my clients – what have you got to lose? Start thinking about the projects you want to implement in your business and then take the time to investigate what grants are available to assist you to get the funding to make it happen.  You never know there may be a grants program out there perfect for your business and how much more enjoyable to be able to implement your project without impacting your profit margins!

By the way if you are interested in the Work and Family Fresh Ideas grants program you will need to act fast as applications close on Friday 24 April 2009!