Matched funding can make all the difference

Our focus at Get Business Grants is of course business grants and facilitating the process of finding and obtaining the grant your business needs. However, business owners and FDs should not ignore other methods of funding their plans that will provide further impetus. Indeed, many grant schemes require that you already have another source of funding for your project in place in order for the grant application to be considered. This could be traditional sources of funding such as a bank loan, or cash directly from the business or its owners, shareholders or other investors. The amount required as matched funding as a proportion of the grant funding varies by grant scheme so it is worth checking on what the parameters are before embarking on applying for matched funding.

If external matched funding is being applied for by a business e.g. a loan, then financial forecasts and business plans will likely be prepared as part of this process. These documents will also be invaluable as part of the grant application process so its important to keep the up to date and to hand. If you need help with preparing these documents then speak to your accountant as a first port of call. Although you know your business best, they should have a good understanding of what is required to satisfy a lender. The bottom line however, is that if you have matched funding in place, it will increase the number of grant schemes that are open to you so it makes sense to look at this first.