Rick 1
08-25-2007, 12:10 AM
Is there any type of grant for business start up or expansion for disabled ppl?
RehabRhino
08-25-2007, 05:29 AM
Rick
I'm not American so I'm no expert on your system and hope others post if they have experience.
I found this Government search engine for Federally funded grants
http://www.grants.gov/
And this one for small businesses
http://www.sba.gov/
This site http://www.angelina.edu/SBDC/grants.htm paints a bit of a depressing picture of the system. Although I can't vouch for its accuracy it does have some links worth checking out:
Foundation Grants
Yahoo has an on-line directory of foundations that provide grants. Although these grants usually go to not-for-profit organizations for philanthropic work, sometimes they do go to for-profit businesses. For further information on these and the type of work they support, go to: http://dir.yahoo.com/society_and_culture/issues_and_causes/philanthropy/organizations/grant_making_foundations (http://dir.yahoo.com/society_and_culture/issues_and_causes/philanthropy/organizations/grant_making_foundations).
Other Grant Resources
A free on-line list of business grants from non-government sources can be found at the Idea Café Grant Center. This is a bulletin board at a website for business owners. They ask their members to post any grants that they hear about on the bulletin board. You do have to register but there are no fees. Their address is www.businessownersideacafe.com (http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/).
There are many fee-based on-line search engines such as www.grantselect.com (http://www.grantselect.com/) that claim to match your needs to a possible grant source. There database includes many different types of grants, some of which are available to small businesses. However, be very careful and spend your money wisely. Rarely do small businesses find grants through one of these matching services due to the reasons previously discussed.
Conclusion
When searching for business grants, you start out with one basic question. Who cares about what I am doing so much that they will give me "free" money? In order to get one of these grants, your business venture must provide the solution to some major problem or need identified by government and/or foundations.