Guaranteed Government Funding For Your Small Business

Guaranteed government funding for your small business! Would that be nice?

The only problem is that nobody can guarantee you funding, and we will explain exactly why that is.

First of all, we here at UKStartups offer a small business platform to help small business owners startup and search for funding. One of our tools is the Funding Database, which provides entrepreneurs with over 1,500 funding sources to search from. This includes government funding programmes, as well as private investors.

On a daily basis we get a ton of requests which start of like this:

Is funding guaranteed if i become a member?

Can I get a guarantee that I will get my business funded?

Are government grants and loans guaranteed?

I need some sort of guarantee that I will get funding

We used to respond to every single request and explain that nobody can guarantee government funding especially when they don’t know about your small business, your idea and a ton of other factors that need to be considered before somebody can even know if you may be eligible to get funding.

After a while we realized that people have a misconception when it comes to government funding. The belief is that because you are a citizen and you pay taxes, you are instantly eligible for funding. Your government owes you that money – is the general consensus. However, there are many many factors that need to be considered before one can be eligible and apply.

So we changed out tactic a little bit. Now when we get a request for any of the instances above mentioning guaranteed funding, we reply like this:

Before we answer your question, can you guarantee us the following: That your business idea is 100% guaranteed to work? That your business plan is perfect? That your funding location, your industry and your funding needs are exactly what the government wants to fund? The amount of money that you are asking, as you sure that the government can fund that? Do you know which programme to apply to 100%? Do you know if you meet all of the requirements and criteria by that programme? Do you know the deadlines of the programme? Is your credit score perfect with no prior history of problems? Do you know the programme coordinator for that agency and can he or she give you guaranteed advice to ensure you are able to get the funding? Can your guarantee that your small business will be successful?

Now these same people have a little bit of a better idea of what it really means to ask “Am I guaranteed government funding”. Sure it’s not the nicest answer and sure that nobody can answer those questions, but it shows the same individuals the idea of what is required and what needs to be considered when asking about guaranteed funding.

While we wish we could guarantee funding to any and every small business – it’s our of our hands. We are suppliers of the tools, resources and expert advice. Once you have that, the rest is up to you, your small business and the funding agency to come to an agreement. We are here to assist and to educate you, and to guide you if necessary, however to guarantee government funding – nobody can do it.

Think of it like this…

When you go to a bank, do you say “hey, give me that credit card”, and the bank teller goes and provides you with a credit card. Or is it more like “hey, I need to apply for a new credit card”, and the teller says to you, “Sure, fill out this credit card application and let us review your credit score so we know how much to give you and if you are able to get accepted”. It’s not any different for government funding.