What actually counts as a grant
Half of what gets published as a small business grant is something else. The difference decides whether you keep the money.
- Grant
- Money you do not pay back, tied to a stated purpose. Rarer and smaller than the listings suggest.
- Matching grant
- The funder covers a share and you fund the rest. Ontario's Starter Company Plus wants 25% from you; the regional development funds want 85%.
- Forgivable loan
- A loan where part of the balance is written off if you hit agreed targets. Frequently listed as a grant. It is not one until the targets are met.
- Reimbursement
- You spend first and claim back after, against receipts. Cash flow matters: you need the money before you get the money.
- Tax credit
- Reduces what you owe rather than paying you. Worth nothing in a year you make no profit.
- Competition
- A prize with a selection process. Real money, but plan around the odds rather than the headline figure.
Why most grant applications fail
Nobody on page one of this search covers it, and it is the part that decides whether your time was worth spending.
Applying when you were never eligible
The commonest waste of time, and the easiest to avoid. Read who does not qualify before who does. Region, trading age, employee count and your own contribution rule out most applicants before anything subjective is considered.
Missing a window you did not know existed
Many programmes open and close on fixed dates rather than running continuously. Ontario's Southwestern fund takes applications in a set period each cycle; the Eastern one runs on a different schedule entirely.
No business plan when one was required
Where a programme asks for a plan and a forecast, those are submission documents, not a formality. An application without them is usually not assessed at all.
Treating the headline figure as what you will get
A maximum is not an average, and a cost-shared programme pays a fraction of the total. The number you should plan around is your share, not theirs.
