With any small business starting up in Canada, funding may be a critical factor to making or breaking the business. As the Canadian government supports it’s entrepreneurs, there are many government funding programs available. Bringing us to the 2 essential things for a proper government funding search.

2 Essential Things For A Government Funding Search

Unlike a personal loan that you get from your bank, applying to a government funding program is a bit of work and can get complicated depending on your business, your industry and your funding needs.

Aside from having to have your business plan written that clearly explains your business model and how you intend on making money, you will need the business plan to cover 2 additional points. These points are essential to the success of doing a proper government funding search and of course, in applying and obtaining the funding needed.

#1: Explaining your funding needs

Before you get a chance to get into your funding needs, your business plan should from top to bottom explain each and every aspect of your business.

Think about you being an investor, what is it that you’d want to know about the business that is applying to you for money?

Do you want to know who they are? What they do? The products/services being offered? Who the competitors are? How much they will charge and how they will make money? Understanding key things like the financials (which are critical in a business plan) is important. All government funding agencies will want to see this – even if you’re just starting up.

Being able to determine your startup costs is critical early on and this will lead you to properly explain your funding needs.

Properly explaining your funding needs and being able to break them down will show potential funding agencies what you need in terms of funding.

Typical funding needs:

• Hiring and training staff
• Purchase of tools, supplies and equipment
• Marketing/Advertising
• Making leasehold improvements/renovation
• Improving your cash flow
• Paying for research and development
• ..etc

When breaking down your funding needs, it’s important to break them down in such sections in order to be able to do a better government funding search and to be able to apply for more programs. Ultimately increasing your chances of securing more funding for your small business.

#2: Breaking down the dollar amounts

After you’ve had a chance to break down what you need the funds for, your business plan will be better prepared for a proper government funding search.

By breaking down your funding needs you will have a better idea which funding programs offered by the Canadian government provide the funds which will cover your needs.

Keep in mind that not all programs and funding agencies are the same and certain ones only fund certain needs.

For example: A program that is for farmers may only fund equipment purchase. Applying to this program and asking them to help you pay for marketing, is useless.

This brings us to the next essential thing for a proper government funding search; breaking down your funding needs to the approximate dollar amounts.

When you apply for government funding you want to show the amount that you’re seeking. Without providing an amount, it’s just as if you applied and asked for zero dollars.

While your business plan may show your funding needs and the financials may show how much you need, a clear explanation of how much funding you need will be ideal.

Break it down

If you require funding for a few things as mentioned above it it is always better to break it down and provide an approximate amount per each item versus a lump sum.

Again remember since you will be applying to multiple programs most likely, it is best to break down your funding needs to show the amounts needed per each.

These are the two most essential components of a proper government funding search that you should have in your business plan.

If you’ve done your business plan, ensure they are present within the sections. At any time, if you wish to have one of our experts here at CanadaStartups.org review your business plan, do reach out and contact us.