Am I eligible for a small business grant?
Before you go too far along the path of checking out the types of small business grants the City of Melbourne has to offer, take a few moments to answer the following brief set of questions. It doesn’t cover all the information you will need to provide – but these are the top ten priority questions we will ask you or will expect to be answered in your application.
Eligibility questions
- Are you located within the City of Melbourne boundaries or are you planning to relocate within the municipality?
- Do you have 20 or fewer employees?
- Do you have an Australian Business Number (ABN)?
- Does your proposal enhance the city’s reputation for innovation, business vitality and environmental sustainability?
- Does your proposal demonstrate solid market potential?
- Does your proposal create employment opportunities and increase the level of business investment?
- For exporters, does your proposal increase the overall value and volume of exports from the city?
- For member-based organisations, does your proposal deliver significant tangible outcomes for your members?
- Have you completed a marketing analysis and have you conducted a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis?
- For business expansion or export grants, do you have a complete, up-to-date set of financial statements?
If you answered yes to all the relevant questions and can provide the material required, then you may well be a good candidate for the Small Business Grants Program.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the business have to be inside the City of Melbourne boundaries?
The City of Melbourne’s Small Business Grants Program offers financial support to eligible small businesses on behalf of its ratepayers. These ratepayers, whether they are individuals or businesses, expect council to be transparent and accountable in its processing of applications under the scheme. So all eligible businesses will be examined against these requirements and objectives.
Why do you limit the business size to 20 employees?
We use the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition that a small business is one that has 20 or fewer employees.
What do we mean by innovation?
Innovation is not invention.
Innovation means doing something in a new or novel way. Or it may involve improving on an existing service or product in an original way.
It may mean that an idea is radically different, but equally it may mean that an idea addresses an everyday process in a revolutionary or original way. You could ask yourself: what is the point of difference between my idea and that of the enterprise next door?
The City of Melbourne is looking for enterprises that indicate, through their innovation, that they can add to the city’s economic prosperity.