Top Business Grants for Women + SBA Awards $2.7 Million in Grants for Women

hey guys i'm crystal a cpa and co-founder at life accounting where we help you to save taxes and increase your wealth today i'm going to help all of my female entrepreneurs to accomplish this by going over the best of business grants available for women if you are a woman and own your own business or if you're a woman who aspires to own your own business then please make sure to stay tuned for this entire video so you can learn more about business grants you can apply for as a female entrepreneur resources where you can find grants and tips on getting awarded a grant i am so excited to dive into this video and help my fellow female entrepreneurs with funding their businesses but before i do and to ensure you don't miss out on another video on saving and making money then be sure to subscribe to our channel [Music] to get started here let's define what a grant is just to make sure we're on the same page a grant is an amount of money given for a specific purpose and if those funds are used for that specific purpose the grant typically does not have to be paid back for the most part grant money is either given by the government or other organizations such as non-profit organizations or for-profit companies this is really important to know because government grants tend to be more competitive than grants from other organizations most people don't know that you can actually receive grants from non-government sources and have a better chance of receiving a grant from a non-profit organization for example what's even better is that the government frequently provides funding to non-profit organizations who then provide grants to small business owners for example the small business administration or sba which is a federal government agency recently awarded 2.7 million dollars to 14 different women's organizations in 13 states and their mission was to establish or continue innovative projects that aim to improve service delivery training and support provided to women-owned businesses impacted by coven 19. the government knows the growth and development of women-owned businesses are needed in order for the economy to thrive so they provide funds to organizations for those organizations to then provide funds to women-owned businesses if you want to learn more about how to get access to the 2.7 million dollars provided by the sba to local women's business centers check out the link in the description below now as a female entrepreneur you have a unique opportunity because you can apply for grants specifically geared towards women this means that there is way less other people applying for those grants which increases your chances of being rewarded one so even government grants for women are much more appealing and easier to receive than non-women government grants just think about it for a second a grant for small businesses in general will have way more applications than a grant for just women businesses which brings me to the first grant for women entrepreneurs and that is the amber grant the amber grant awards ten thousand dollars every month to a woman-owned business this grant was started in 1998 after a young lady named amber passed away before she could reach her business goals for this grant it is important to have a story behind your business and a real passion for what you do because as you can tell they certainly have a story behind their mission for this grant you can have an already established business or just starting out you'll see when you open their application it's pretty straightforward and asks for very basic information like your name email and an overview of your business and what you plan on using the grant for the next grant for women is the soul gal black founder startup grant as the name suggests this grant is for black female entrepreneurs soul gal is a venture capital firm that seeks to provide investor financing to diverse entrepreneurs and investors they seek to bridge the funding gap between women and other demographic groups according to them black female entrepreneurs receive less than half a percent of venture capital funding and they are here to change that the grant amount ranges but from what i can tell on their website it's anywhere between five thousand and ten thousand dollars similar to the amber grant the application is very straightforward but they do want you to have a business website so they can learn more about your business the third business grant for women i want to talk about is the i fund women grants their mission is to close the funding gap for women-owned businesses as well they cite that women are starting businesses 4.8 times faster than the national average but are also least likely to receive funding and they wish to change that as you can see their website offers multiple business grants for women at any one time which gives you more opportunities to find and receive grants they work with a number of business partners to offer these grants to female entrepreneurs and so the award amounts vary depending on the sponsor most of their grant applications here take five to ten minutes to complete the fourth grant for women is the cartier women's initiative award their mission is to empower women entrepreneurs from all over the world so this grant is available to female entrepreneurs in any country they award 21 female entrepreneurs with awards ranging from 30 000 to 100 000 even better seven out of the 21 winners will also receive mentoring and one-on-one business coaching the 21 winners are announced once per year so for this grant it is important to be mindful of the deadlines or you may have to wait until the next year to apply now these are just four of the many grants available for women i try to provide grants that most of you will fall into but depending on your industry and location there could be a lot more grants available for example if you are in the fashion music or art industries there is a grant called the girl boss foundation grant specifically for female entrepreneurs in these industries or there's also the house dead grant for female entrepreneurs in the jewelry industry a good website to check out for a lot of different female-based grants is grantsforwomen.org now to be honest their website is not really user friendly but i will link the exact page you can find available grants for women but basically grants for women.org is a database of grant opportunities for women across industries it's definitely worth checking out so as i mentioned before grants from non-profits and other organizations are traditionally less competitive than federal and state grants but i do want to give you some resources to find and apply to these grants as well because after all you have nothing to lose when applying for free money the first place i'd recommend finding federal grants is the sba the sba is a federal agency that is dedicated to providing resources to small businesses if you go to their website sba.gov you'll see they have a whole section for funding programs here you'll see grants and loans available to small businesses including popular ones like the paycheck protection program or ppp and the economic injury disaster loan or eidl they also have a number of other grants available browse here and see which grants you qualify for and apply now if you're looking for state grants a great place to start is your state's department of economic development you can do this by googling your state and then department of economic development grants when i do this for georgia the very first link takes me directly to the page of the available grants and loans available for small businesses follow this same process for your state and you should be able to find similar grants in your state also feel free to call your state's department of economic development's office to answer your questions or possibly learn more about how to get approved for the grants available at the end of the day these people are here to help you you just need to take initiative and find the information then reach out all right before you get out there and start applying for grants there are a few things you should have in place first and the first being you need to have a legitimate business and what i mean is even if you're starting out make sure that your business is registered with the state it could be an llc c corp s s-corp or non-profit whatever it is it needs to be legitimate and on paper second go ahead and get your business ein free from the irs website and open a business checking account if you don't have one already in most cases a grant application is not going to ask for your ein or business checking account information but if you are awarded funds that's when they would request this information it's best for you and your business if the grant income is received under the business name this will avoid tax issues later on third make sure your personal and business tax returns are up to date and complete some grant sponsors will want to know the financial standing of you and your business so make sure your tax returns are completed for the most recent tax year fourth get a business website email address and phone number a lot of these grant sponsors want to look into your business and one way is by checking out your website or calling your business for more information having all of these items in place legitimizes your business and makes it easier for organizations to give you a business grant and don't worry all of these things can happen within a reasonable time frame you just need to sit down and do it fifth think about your business story why did you get started who are you serving what is your mission organizations will want to understand your business purpose and the passion you have for it so it is a good idea to already have a little founder's story in place and lastly think about how you would intend to use a grant awarded to you in almost every application the sponsor asks what are your plans for the grant funds is it to hire a team buy supplies or inventory or open a physical location the grant shouldn't just be a way to pay you as the owner but instead a business purpose tied to fulfill your mission that's all i have for today's video please be sure to give this video a like and let me know in the comments if you have any questions until next time i'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: LYFE Accounting

Views: 317,267

Keywords: grants, business grants for women, small business grants, small business funding

Id: ohkJcGssNtA

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 26 2021