Government Grants

3 responses so far ↓

• 1 sunshine_today // Jan 27, 2009 at 1:28 am

  Small Business Administration offers loans and business advice. I don’t know about grants.

• 2 imisidro // Jan 27, 2009 at 10:23 am

  It is hard to find grants to start a business. The most you can probably get is something like $500 for some toys or materials for your daycare from the state, but you need to prove that those materials are essential. Other than that, there’s nothing.

  Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK - lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born.

  Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) and Grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.

  Go to CFDA.gov –> search by Beneficiary –> Choose among the dropdown the type of beneficiary that you may qualify (e.g. small business, women, minorities). And you will find NONE for starting a childcare business.

  Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same - hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.

  Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website

  “The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments.”

  Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program

  Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs

  For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center’s Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It’s a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for “students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices.” Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don’t have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.

  I suggest you start out by preparing your business plan so you can determine how much money you would need and other details of your business. Here are free business plans on childcare business:

  You may want to read the free article “How To Start Your Own Day Care Center”

  It covers various aspects of starting and running a daycare center including the demand for daycare centers, how to start this business, shoestring strategies, how to operate a daycare center, tips on caring for the children, income potential, how to manage your daycare, marketing your business and other additional income potential. There are so many things to learn about the business that the first step is to read everything you can find.

  For in-depth information, I suggest checking out the following books:

  - Start and Run a Profitable Home Day Care
  - The Daycare Provider’s Workbook
  - Start Your Own At-Home Child Care Business
  - So You Want to Open a Profitable Child Care Center :
  Everything You Need to Know to Plan, Organize and Implement a Successful Program

  It is also important that you learn the tax rules affecting daycare centers, especially if you are going to open one from your home. Here is the IRS page on child care centers:,,id=99878,00.html

• 3 pinkpicklebox // Jan 30, 2009 at 7:27 pm

  honestly if you go I know I know down to the welfare office they will train you for free and help you get started along with finding staff for you at least thats how my friend did it.