The Business Growth Grant is part of Entrepreneurs’ Programme that assists small and medium businesses with up to $20K funding for targeted growth sectors to improve business capability, which may include advice from professionals with relevant private sector experience, networking opportunities, and co-funded grants.

Deadlines and Timings

Applications are open year round.

Overview and Grant Amount

The Business Growth Grant can help you implement practical solutions for your business through

• business evaluation – a range of services initially comprising an evaluation by a business adviser to tailor the service to the participant’s needs, based on the participant’s capacity, commitment and need to undertake significant improvements
• growth services – a range of services that support a participant, over an extended engagement, to achieve growth through strategic business improvements and connections
• supply chain facilitation – a range of services delivered to a participant to facilitate access to supply chain opportunities
• tourism partnerships – services delivered to a group or consortium of businesses, in the tourism sector, to facilitate and encourage joint activities for the benefit of the group or consortium

Your application must include a quote from a service provider to implement part, or the entirety of, the strategies you need, including a breakdown of all key activities. The grant reimburses businesses, after completion of the project, for 50% of an agreed total project value up to a maximum of $20,000 (excluding GST).

Eligibility and Criteria

To be eligible, applicants must:

• have an annual turnover (or operating expenditure) within the current, or one of the last two financial years between (i) $1.5 million and 100 million, or (ii) $750,000 and $100 million for applicants from Remote Australia or Northern Australia
• conduct an activity that links to an area of need as defined in the recommendations of your (i) business evaluation action plan, (ii) growth plan, (iii) supplier improvement plan or (iv) tourism partnership plan from Entrepreneurs’ Programme
• submit an application (i) within 6 months of receiving a business evaluation action plan, supplier improvement plan or tourism partnership plan, or (ii) within 12 months of receiving a growth plan
• embed new capabilities and/or strategies in your business
• engage external services to improve your business
• be in the sectors of (i) advanced manufacturing, (ii) food and agribusiness, (iii) medical technologies and pharmaceuticals, (iv) mining equipment, technology and services, (v) oil, gas and energy resources, and (vi) enabling technologies (for the 5 sectors listed)
• not use the grant to conduct an ineligible activity

Ineligible activities:

• ordinary operating expense of your business, e.g., accounting fees, office expenses
• purchase of capital goods including software, with the exemption of: (i) the first year of new subscription software/ cloud based services is eligible; (ii) software tailored to the needs of the business and associated implementation costs are eligible
• any activity that involves expenditure on advertising, printing and placement costs, trade shows or costs associated with visiting domestic and international markets
• the costs associated with renewing or re-certification of an existing industry certification
• any work in registering domestic or international patents and intellectual property
• litigation, legal compliance, tax compliance, estate planning or government fees
• any training that is not tailored for the business, including training where other businesses are in attendance, with the exemption of: leadership courses which are less than 12 months in duration and that do not result in a tertiary or TAFE qualification are eligible
• any activity that is receiving other financial assistance obtained from any Local, State, Territory or Commonwealth government or any ‘in kind’ contributions external to the business
• any activity that involves the project management of subcontractors

For more information, interested parties are encouraged to read the program guidelines set by the funding grant. Submissions may be lodged through their online portal.

Expert Assistance

We have 14 years of experience preparing EMDG claims and can assist in making sure you receive your maximum rebate.

Working with us means you get the maximum grant with minimum risk and effort. Our expertise includes R&D Tax Incentive registration and tax schedules, Export Grants, Capital Expenditure and Infrastructure Grants.

Get in touch with us and let’s discuss this more in detail.

For information about other Australian Government Grants, visit Treadstone New Grants page and sign up to our newsletter!