Starting, growing, and/or expanding a Family Business is never easy work. There are always costs that are involved and unless you have the funds you need, this can pose to be a challenge. While you can save money to use, or borrow money, finding government funding for a Family Business can be the stepping stone you need to make your business dream come true.

The British government has several government funding programmes that a Family Business may be able to take advantage of. These government funds may come from your local government office, from the regional government, or the national government.

Start your funding search now, to find relevant government funding for a Family Business

A little about government funding programmes

If you are looking for government funding, or any type of government grants, loans, or other options to startup or expand a Family Business in the UK, it’s important to know the basics of funding in general.

There are various funding options that a small business owner in the UK may be able to take advantage of. These programmes come from various levels of the British government and can include government grants, government loans, tax breaks, tax credits..etc. The most popular option will be government grants. These grant programmes are generally provided to help small business owners and entrepreneurs take advantage of the “free money”, which they can use towards bettering their business, creating jobs, and overall improving the economy. Government grants are available, however are always in high demand, thus staying current with what is available and acting on it quickly is the best way to ensure your success with any grant applications. The more "easier to obtain" option is a government loan, which offers by far better interest rates, even no interest rates in certain situations which can be quite helpful for a startup or expanding business to take advantage of. If you have however spent the money on ou business already and are looking for a credit back, you can consider the various tax breaks and tax credits - which act much like the tax incentives/refunds at the end of the tax season. Speak to a government funding expert to get help with finding funding for your small business.

Using government funding for your Family Business

While there are many government funding programmes available for small business owners across the UK. Your business has to be eligible for them before you can plan on spending the money. As a Family Business, you may have a number of startup or expansion expenses you want to have covered via government funds, so it is crucial that you understand what you can use the funds for before you apply. Speak to a funding expert to better understand how to use the funds and what you can use the funds for.

As a small business in the UK, the below are some of the business activities which you may be able to obtain funding for (including grants, government loans, tax breaks/credits..etc)

Some of the more common funding requirements that business owners try and take advantage of, including those starting a Family Business business include: to help with purchase of new or used equipment, marketing and advertising costs, expansion capital, startup/expansion costs, and operating capital/cash flow.

If you are unsure of what you need for your small business just yet, speaking with a funding expert or a business consultant will help narrow down the needs. Speak to an expert now.

How much can you get in government funding?

Each business has different funding requirements. There is often no set amount as to how much it will cost you to startup, expand, or to operate your Family Business.

While it’s easy to say, “I need £50,000 to start my Family Business”, or “I need £500,000”; the process to determine your needs in detail should come first. This often requires a proper business plan to be done to help you determine your goals as well as your needs – in order to help you understand how much in government funding you need.

Each government funding agency has the amounts that they are comfortable providing business owners. These amounts vary and depend on a number of factors.

These factors can include the specific business you are in (the industry), your location, what you need funding for, how much you need, when you need it by, how effective your business plan is, your financial, in certain cases your credit score and more. These factors are used to determine quite a lot, and how much you may be eligible for.

As a Family Business and based on the funding needs mentioned above (not taking into consideration other factors), others in the same industry have been successful at obtaining between as little as £25,000 and as much as £500,000. This does not reflect how much you would be able to obtain but gives you an idea of the ranges. To determine if you are eligible for any funding, you can speak to a funding expert now.

As a Family Business, what is needed to apply for government funding?

When you are ready to apply for funding for your small business, be it a Family Business, or any type of business, it’s important to understand that each funding program has its own criteria which you must follow.

Since each grant, loan, and funding programme is different in what they require of you as an applicant, it is important to read the qualification, criteria, and requirements being asked. You can speak to a funding expert to get a better understanding of this and what is specifically needed in your case.

If you are ready, you can speak to a funding expert now.

Generally speaking, the must-haves before you apply to any government funding programme includes:

1. A solid business plan
2. 3 year financials (current financials or projections)
3. PitchDeck presentation (not mandatory but helpful)
4. Completed and confirmed funding application

In addition to these 4 critical must-haves, you will have to ensure you meet the eligibility criteria which can often ask that you are in the correct industry, location, have the right funding needs, that you apply on time (pre-deadline)..etc

Each of the general requirements is something you should have ready before you decide to apply.

1. Your business plan should be detailed and should explain your Family Business in detail, along with a breakdown of any and all funding needs.
2. The financials for your Family Business should be clear and growth year over year should be shown.
3. Your PitchDeck presentation if you decide to do one for your Family Business should be no more than 15 slides and should be visually appealing and match the points covered in your business plan.

These 3 documents will ensure you have the majority of what is needed to apply for funding for your Family Business.

If you need help, guidance, and handholding through the steps, working with a business and funding expert is the best way to ensure no issues. Speak to an expert now.

Ready to get started?

If you are ready to get started, and launch/expand your own Family Business, you can register and use the Small Business Startup Platform.

The platform provides you access to the Business Plan Builder Tool which will allow you to develop your Family Business plan from scratch, with expert guidance and assistance. It will also help you figure out how to create your 3 year financials projections, so you will be ready for the next steps.

The PitchDeck Tool will help you create a visually appealing presentation, made to impress investors or government funding agencies with the only thing left to do is to find the government funding options you can apply for. And we help with that too!

The Funding Database will provide you access to all available government funding for a Family Business, as well as other options which including business acquisition costs, to cover business development costs, to help with purchase of new or used equipment, to assist with trade shows, exploration or evaluation, and startup/expansion costs

With your access to the Small Business Startup Platform, you will have access to experts 24/7, with step-by-step assistance through each step to helping you build up with what is needed for your Family Business, and to help you find all available government funding options.

Who can get government funding?

The British government provides quite a lot of funding each year to help thousands of small business owners benefit from the various funding options.

While there are a number of Family Business startups or expanding businesses that secured different types of government funding, finding the funds for you should be a process that you work on with a funding expert. Work with an expert now.

Here are just a few small businesses across the UK that were successful at obtaining government funding. You can also see over 10,000 of these within the Small Business Startup Platform.

Company Name	Location	Funding Purpose	Funding Amount
Korway Foods Limited	North Lanarkshire	To design and implement new process development, improve production planning and material control systems in current factory. Plan and implement layout, facilities and production systems for new factory.	£59,796.00
Settle Hydro Ltd	North Yorkshire	Equipment and construction costs, project management fees, development costs and a donation to the developing world hydro scheme	£70,000.00
Westrope Brothers	Bedfordshire	Purchase of new equipment and machinery	£47,645.00
W T & E J Reed	Northumberland	Improvement of land and buildings	£4,885.00
Owen Barry Limited	South Yorkshire	To develop and implement an appropriate business strategy that addresses key issues with business processes, operations and skills base for improved productivity, responsiveness and competitiveness.	£84,102.00
Derwent Systems Ltd	Tyne & Wear	To develop and implement marketing strategies to enhance current activities and systems in the UK and develop potential markets elsewhere in Europe and North America.	£52,000.00
Business Link Nottinghamshire Limited	Nottinghamshire	To consolidate Business Link Nottinghamshire's capability to extract maximum value from its investment in Customer Relationship Management systems.	£29,565.00
AES Engineering Ltd	Essex	To exploit a market for more complex seals by the use of finite element design procedures.	£61,000.00
M & K F Ling	Norfolk	Support to enhance productivity	£5,619.00
Integrated Navigation Systems Ltd	Northamptonshire	Development of Navigation Satellite System	£16,290.00

UK Startups has helped thousands of small businesses over the years with securing government grants, government loans, finding private funding, building business plans, providing expertise and guidance through the steps, and more.

In addition to providing this type of help to many Family Business owners, other business ideas that we’ve helped include:

• Waterbed Repair Service -> build a business plan for Waterbed Repair Service and find funding.

• Mobile Money Agent -> build a business plan for Mobile Money Agent and find funding.

• Solid Waste Engineer -> build a business plan for Solid Waste Engineer and find funding.

• Drug Store -> build a business plan for Drug Store and find funding.

• Low Income Housing Program -> build a business plan for Low Income Housing Program and find funding.

• Orphanage -> build a business plan for Orphanage and find funding.

• Security Service -> build a business plan for Security Service and find funding.

• Used Furniture Store -> build a business plan for Used Furniture Store and find funding.

• Burrito Restaurant -> build a business plan for Burrito Restaurant and find funding.

• Motel -> build a business plan for Motel and find funding.

Working with an expert at UK Startups will ensure that they have the skills required to assist you with a Family Business, or any other business that you may be deciding to get into.

Want to know more about the experts?

Working with an expert on starting your small business, be it a Family Business or something else – you want to ensure that you always work with the best business consultants, experts, and advisors that can help your business achieve success and to help you find the best funding options for your needs.

The experts are here to help you succeed with your business. The help available starts with your business plan and financial projection and from there move towards the funding search. The experts that are available 24/7 via the platform and the Ask an Expert program can help you, no matter your industry and will work with you to ensure your success, day or night.

The experts, which are part of the Small Business Startup Platform are available 24/7 via the Ask an Expert program. This is available to all members and the service should come in handy when starting your own Family Business. In addition to being available 24/7 for any business-related questions, some of the direct assistance you can benefit from when using the experts include:

• Searching for available government grants and other funding options for you
• Helping you determine your funding needs and requirements
• Providing you with application guidance and review service
• Guiding you with your financial projections
• Assistance with creating your business plan
• Providing you with an in-depth review of your work
• Helping you with your financial statements, including balance sheet, cash flow, and profit/loss statements
• Assisting with the pitch process

Ready to get started and work with an expert? It is as easy as registering here.

Checklist to help with government funding for Family Business

The process of starting a Family Business can be a simple one if you have access to the funds you need. The below checklist will help you with the steps needed to secure government funding for a Family Business.

This checklist is best used with the Small Business Startup Platform and set of tools/resources:

✅ Write down your Family Business idea on paper (the draft of a plan).

This can be done on paper, in Word, or using the Business Plan Builder Tool. As you go through the process of writing down your business idea, be sure to use the Ask an Expert program to request help, guidance, or assistance if something is unclear. Following the right step-by-step guide to developing a plan that can help with getting government funding is the key to success.

✅ Share your draft with an expert for an in-depth review

Once you’ve had a chance to go through the business plan, be it in full, or partially, sharing your work with an expert who specializes in business plans should be the next step. An expert who has an in-depth understanding of government funding and what is needed to succeed will review your work and provide you with actionable feedback to help you complete the plan needed to start your Family Business.

✅ Complete your financials needed for a Family Business

The process of creating financials is a fairly complicated one. By using experts to help you, via the Ask an Expert program, the projections of your financials can be done with ease. This process will help you with the step by step in putting together proper, annualized projections including documents that are needed by funding agencies.

✅ Create a visually appealing PitchDeck presentation

Having a PitchDeck presentation to go along with your business plan can help with show the visual side of the business model as well as your funding needs. By having a PitchDeck presentation that is optimized for funding and summarizes your government funding needs, the process of sharing your information with a funding agency does get simplified. You can use the Ask an Expert program to get step-by-step help with developing the best PitchDeck for your business.

✅ Start the government funding search

The funding search is not a complicated process, but it can be if you are doing it on your own. In fact, the average time it takes to find funding on your own can range from 6 to 8 weeks, if you know where to look! With the Funding Database and access to the Ask an Expert program, the search process of finding government funding for Family Business becomes much easier.

Use the experts to help you find the best options for your needs

✅ Fill out the applications

The last step of the checklist to find government funding for a Family Business is to ensure you fill out the funding applications correctly. While you can do this on your own, directly via the funding agency, it is a good idea to use the Ask an Expert program and have an expert guide you step by step through the application process and review them before being sent out.

The 6-step checklist process of starting and finding funding for your Family Business can be done fairly quickly with the right tools, resources, and services available via the Small Business Startup Platform.

To use the Small Business Startup Platform for your own business – register right here.

Still not ready?

Starting a small business is a lot of work, especially if you need funding to ensure your success. If you are still in the early phases, it’s good to work with an expert to start correctly, right from the beginning. But if you need a bit more time, the below resources about government grants, government loans, government funding in general, starting up, business planning..etc should help focus you in the right direction:

• Funding Granted to Local Entrepreneurs

• Funding Database Walkthrough: Yorkshire and the Humber Business Grants and Funding

• Small Company Grants in the UK

• £31, 000 in Government Funding for Trucking Company

• Funding Database Walkthrough: North East England Business Grants and Funding