Does anyone have experience of applying for funding from these schemes? Do they make you jump through hoops?
Many years ago - when I was under 25! I applied for funding from the Prince's Trust... Time served at my trade, solid business plan all laid out, was putting my life savings into the project etc. I got nothing. And bear in mind that I was brought up the son of a single parent in one of the most deprived areas of Europe, to which I had returned after completing my training, and where I was setting up a business.
In the waiting room at the interview (in the middle of a freezing March) there was this wee Windsoresque blonde with her skirt half way up her @*** and her not inconsiderable 'Erthas' out on display; the daughter of one of the cleaners at the University I'd started out at. She wanted £2500 for a car so she could set up as a 'mobile hairdressing' business. - This despite the fact she had absolutely no professional background or training and her experience of hairdressing was 'cutting her pals' hair' (this I know from her mother). She got the money! - And spent (what would then be about half-a-year's wages for a clerk) on a fortnight in Spain and an old banger. The hairdressing business never happened! It was never going to!
More recently I was brought in as a consultant on a charity-based recycling project (which I cannot name for legal reasons, but wish I could!). I bailed out when it became painfully apparent the whole thing was a regulatory shambles. It was essentially a family-run 'rag and bone' business, set up as a charity to circumvent various regulations, access cheap premises, subsidised labour, and claw-in whatever grants it could; money was going home in carrier bags at night with the ridiculously entitled 'CEO' - along with all the (strangely laptop) computers belonging to the business. When I tried to introduce a computerised stock control/POS system I was met with the most ridiculous obstruction. Conditions at their original premises were such that the staff didn't even have proper toilets! At one point I found a worker (a vulnerable person) washing his hands in a deep puddle!
- About the time I hit the ejector seat, OSCR moved in and shut them down. It wasn't just me, but another person - who they'd discriminated against - blew the whistle on them. Not before though they had secured grants in six-figures as well as soft loans to secure million-pound premises! - Which are now closed down again!
It's not always the case by any means. But too often I see grants, loans and free publicity going to the wrong people.
If you can get something out these organisations, go for it. But in the 30+ years I've been in business (unless you count standard rates relief) I've never been able to access a brass penny - either in cash or kind - by way of help or assistance. And in the early days I wasted an awful lot of time and energy trying. In fact I'll go so far as to say I've always found the organisations behind these things quite cliquey and at times even deliberately obstructive...
Tog's quite correct about the process as it
should run and maybe often does. Really, the process should be little different from seeking a business loan on a commercial basis.
What I say to anyone is make your plans stand up on their own on a commercial basis - if you can attract a grant, fair enough; but plan in such a way as you can go ahead without any such help. Because - even if you're a prime candidate - there is never a guarantee with these things. You should have a business case that (if necessary) will support a commercial loan; if there are then softer options by all means try to access them. but prepare for the worst-case scenario.
