There are a multitude of sources of Grant funding but most are not focused to assist the individual small business person or the entrepreneur in need of start-up funding.
For a sample, see the Small Business Administration web site: http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/start/financestartup/SERV_GRANTRES.html
This lists federal agencies and their grant programs.
At this site, the SBA also specifically states that they do not provide any grants for business start-ups!
Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, almost all government (County, State or Federal) Grants are made to other governments or to economic development organizations who work with local governments to attract new businesses or expansions of existing businesses.
The State of North Carolina has two significant grant programs:
1. – The One North Carolina Fund, which is summarized on the department of Commerce Website:
www.nccommerce.com/en/BusinessServices/LocateYourBusiness/WhyNC/Incentives/OneNorthCarolinaFund/
There are a number of requirements which do not make this helpful in your case: the State money must be matched by local government money (Moore Cty, Whispering Pines, etc); you must sign a binding agreement to create jobs and meet certain wage standards, and you must be in business with all new employees on the job BEFORE you get the money! This is obviously for big companies who are well capable of making the necessary investments, but need just that little more incentive to cause them to decide in favor of a NC solution.
2. – The NC Rural Economic Development Center provides grants to communities and non- profit organizations which assist SB and LB to start and grow.
An example is $400,000 to the City of Raeford to incentivize Unilever to ramp up production in one of its NC plants and create 200 new jobs, rather than doing it in one of their plants outside of NC. A second example is more common: a grant to the Town of Robbins to enhance their water treatment plant’s capability to produce drinkable water. Robbins is participating, with some good successes, in the NC STEP process for improving the overall economic situation in several designated NC towns. This has included the competitive award of highly focused grants to several small businesses.
The City of Fayetteville, Community Development Department, has a very focused Façade Improvement Grant Program to provide limited public funds for certain storefront improvements in selected and impoverished areas of the city. This is administered by Michelle Haire, Economic Development Administrator, 910 433-1596.
There are also Private Companies who SELL you “instructions” on how to successfully apply for grants from Federal government agencies. One hideous but typical example: http://www.usagovernmentgrants.org/US_Gov_Grants.html. Because this is an advertisement to draw you into a pay for training scheme, it looks promising and costs only $12.95; to start with!
ALL publicly funded grants are awarded in a set calendar cycle, as they dispense authorized and appropriated funds. No matter where a supplicant would find a potential source of Grant money, they would need a well documented plan with timelines, rational cost estimates and profit predictions, and then would fill out the application. And then wait. One bit of good news: All federal GRANTS may be searched for, and applied for at this standardized sire: www.grants.gov
Please be aware that many of the grant sources above also will not award, or pay off until the supplicant has self-financed at least some of what the grant is for in the first place.