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“My advice would be make sure you have a solid business plan because you’ll never get past first base until you know exactly where you are going. A lot of the guys, and being an inventor, I’m guilty of this at times, you get off into dreamland, and dream about all the great things you’re going to do, but when you sit down and you start putting down all the real hard-core reality of the project and its feasibility your dreams get dashed against the rocks of reality pretty quickly. Don’t fall in love with your project before you fall in love with your business plan.

 

“It’s free money. If your costs are a hundred thousand all of sudden they’re fifty. That’s a nice chunk of cash.”

– This forestry company received $53,545 to hire intellectual talent to help develop new technology.

 

Allow yourself some time. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. Get your business plan together — that’s the big thing to start with. Then be patient. It has to go to the program office, they have to go through it all and it takes time.”

– This entrepreneur received $7500 to purchase an existing carpeting business.

 

“Get to know the program officer very well. The people who administer the program are the key. If you don’t get to know them very well and you expect them to do what you want them to do, it doesn’t work out that well. We try to get to know various representatives and get them to know our business.”

– This manufacturer of marine kitchen appliances received $3,414 to hire engineers to help develop a new product.

 

Big money going to the country: Rural programs abound:

Improving the job market and economic potential of rural areas is a target of many federal and provincial programs. For information on programs for rural businesses, contact the Small Business Funding Centre (at the information below).

 

 

 

For information on grants & loans for your new or existing business call 1-800-658-9792 . Or write us at Small Business Funding Centre 1500 Bank Street, Room 425, Ottawa Canada K1H 1B8 or e-mail us.


This Entrepreneur Stories article was written by The Small Business Funding Centre on 1/13/2006

The SBFC’s mandate is to help new and existing Canadian small businesses gain access to government funding: helping young entrepreneurs gain the knowledge and tools to get funding to help start-up their own practice. Coincidently, they also have an interesting and educational monthly newsletter/online database containing hundreds of articles related to various business topics and related issues.