No, there’s no charge to simply tell you whether or not there’s a suitable grant available. If we feel there is a suitable grant, we then talk more in-depth with you about what’s on offer and what’s needed to be able to apply for the grant. If everything doesn’t match we don’t pursue with any grant application(s) and there’s no charge. If everything does match, we agree on a charge then make the application in the knowledge it will be successful.

No, grants are not provided directly by us., and therefore we have no say in anything to do with grants. We work with finance partners who have direct access to the grants and as such our duty to them and you is in ensuring that the criteria of the grant(s) are matched by the businesses applying.

Our strength in grant applications is in knowing exactly what is required and expected by all parties. This has resulted in a 100% success rate of all grant applications made by us on behalf of our clients over many years.

The business grants we’re able to access do not, unfortunately, apply to new businesses i.e. those operating for less than 12-18 months although the criteria of any given grant may in very rare cases cater for 12 months or slightly less.

The term match-funded is used by grant providers when there’s the expectation to be placed on the applicant to part-fund the need/requirement of the grant. As an example: if the business was seeking an £80,000 grant towards the purchase of equipment and there was a contribution requirement of 50/50. To be successful the most the grant award would be for would-be £40,000. As each grant has its differing criteria, totals and values used here are only by way of an example.

Match-funded grants come with a stipulation as to what’s expected of the applicant to contribute i.e. 50/50, 60/40 70/30 etc. As not all businesses have the available funds to do this it’s not unheard of that they need to apply for a business loan in order to cover their element of contribution. This is something we can help with and would identify as part of the assessment of suitability for a grant application in the first instance.

The short answer is NO, to be successful with a grant application you must not have started or undertaken any direct purchasing or spending. An example being, if you need a grant for equipment, you can have identified the equipment you need, obtained quotes, but must not have signed an agreement to purchase, made a deposit or any other form of payment against the equipment before applying for the grant, otherwise, you’d be excluded from applying.

We have no control over the criteria which is set for the business grants we are able to access on behalf of West Midlands businesses. As grants become available we’re advised as to what the criteria and targeted sector/purpose are, and we have to strictly adhere to this in order for any grant application to be successful.

The rules of grant eligibility are specifically and firmly set to each and every business grant, with a targeted intention as to what the expected results from any approved funding would need to be returned by the business, such as job creation, increased productivity. If the criteria of the grants stipulate NO RETAIL, it means no retail regardless of the fact that a business might only be making 5pc of sales (or less) direct to the public.

Grants are packaged by various sources and targeted to locally help businesses achieve growth and create jobs. Unfortunately, all grants have exclusions with the retail sector being a prominent exclusion.