A Guide to Applying for QLD Government Small Business Grants

The Queensland Government is a great supporter of Small Business, and fairly regularly offers different types of Grants to assist Small Business owners with developing and growing their businesses.

This post provides some tips and guidelines to the Small Business Grant application process – to give your application the best success of being approved.

We are NOT Grant Writers and we are NOT able to prepare or submit Grants on your behalf, but we DO have many clients who have applied for and been accepted for Grants in the past, and we DO regularly provide Quotes for our clienst to include with their grant applications… If you would like a quote for Website Development or Digital Marketing Strategy / Training/ Consulting, please feel free to contact us.

Currently Available Small Business Grants

The currently available (and upcoming) Grants being offered by Business Queensland can be checked on their Small Business Grants Schedule web page. This page is regularly updated so Small Business owners should check it from time to time to see what is currently available.

Grant Application Process

Typically the application process for Small Business Grants offered by Business Queensland is pretty straightforward – simply involving filling in a number of basicle questions about your business, and what you plan to achieve with the grant funding if you are successful… Most of these questions are very simple for the business owner to complete, and even the free form responses are typically limited to 100 or 200 words, so the average business owner should be able to complete most applications within 1/2hr or so (or less)…

Grant Application Tips

• Read The Eligibility Rules VERY carefully – if you don’t qualify, don’t waste your time (and everyone else’s ) going any further
• Understand what is covered – be very clear what types of activities are covered by this grant – different grants are designed to cover different types of activities… if you don’t need the activities covered – don’t apply
• How Much ? – check how much the grant is for, how and when payment is made, and whether it is a full or part payment (many grants require you to cover half the costs)
• What do you need to provide ? – Usually you will need to provide at least one quote from a supplier, and an outline of hpow you plan to use the grant, but you may need to include other things with your application as well (like a signed Statutory Declaration)… Make sure you have or can get everything you need to provide
• Prepare your application early and submit as soon as possible – Check when applications open (and close) and aim to have everything ready to go so you can submit your application as soon as you can (some grant applications close VERY quickly if they have a lot of applicants)
• Answer the Questions completely, honestly and succinctly – When filling in the application form, make sure you answer EVERYTHING, and that you are truthful… and don’t waffle on… say only what is asked and what is necessary
• Ensure your proposal addresses the selection criteria – Ensure that your answers are relevant to the purpose of the grant (not just your own goals)

Sample Grant Application Questions / Responses

We regularly provide quotes for our clients to include with their Grant Application for Website Development/Digital Marketing Strategy/Content Creation and Training/Coaching/Consulting services – and their applications are often (but not always) successful.

We have outlined below some “common” questions that are often asked in the application process – along with some sample responses. These particular questions were taken from the Business Basics Grant Application Form (June 2021).

Some general suggestions :

• Keep it short and simple – don’t use the full 200 words if you don’t have to… why say something in 200 words when you can do it in 50 ?
• Answer the Question – don’t include information that is not relevant to the question (unless you think it strengthens your application and can not be provided elsewhere)

We suggest that you review these suggested answers, consider how they apply to your business and modify them accordingly – simply copying and pasting these responses may not be the best approach for your application :

Q. Short description of the grant funded activity
(Must be no more than 200 words.)

• Sample Response 1: Our existing website has not been updated for some time, contains out-of-date information, and doesn’t really reflect our current offerings. We need a website review to make recommendations as to how the site could be improved to better meet our needs and grow our business… We need assistance with the re-development and also training so we can manage/update the site ourselves. (61 words)
• Sample Response 2: We don’t currently have a website (although most of our competitors do). We need a website to be able to promote and sell our Products/Services online to be able to compete effectively and grow our business. We would need the website developed and training/coaching so we can maintain the site ourselves. We would also need assistance with setting up and managing a digital marketing strategy so we can be found properly on Google, and training/coaching so we can carry out most digital marketing activities ourselves. (85 words)
• Sample Response 3: We have an existing website, but it rarely generates any inquiries or sales, but we know that many of our competitors do get a lot of business online . We want our current site reviewed and a digital marketing strategy prepared to see what we should be doing to improve our online presence… We also need training so we can properly manage the website, digital marketing, and content creation ourselves. (70 words)

How will the grant funded activities enhance the core skills of the business and make it more competitive. (Must be no more than 200 words.)

• Currently we are fully dependent on our existing website developer to manage and update the website – this is expensive and sometimes takes a long time to get anything done. With training, we should be able to do most website updates and add content ourselves – when we need it… and only use the developer for complex or technical updates. (60 words)
• Our existing website is old and out of date, doesn’t work very well for mobile devices, and rarely generates any inquries/sales. It needs to be updated to reflect our current products/services. It also needs to load faster and be found better on Google. By redeveloping the website we expect to significantly improve our online presence and get more sales and inquiries. (61 words)
• We don’t have an effective website at the moment – and most of our competitors do. We need a decent website to be able to be found online. We also need a digital marketing strategy so we can start to compete on social media and be found on Google. (49 words)

How will the grant funded activity assist your business to grow revenue, profit,and create jobs.
(Must be no more than 200 words.)

• We can’t at the moment afford to pay for website development/re-development ourselves and don’t have the skills to be able to promote our business very well online. This grant would allow us to develop/re-develop our website and finally have an online profile, with a plan (digital marketing strategy) for how we can showcase our products/services online. Many of our competitors are doing very well online and we need to do this in order to grow our business and hire more staff. (81 words)
• Our existing website is outdated and not generating any online enquiries or sales…. by developing/improving our online presence we can finally start to generate business online. (26 words)