Recently, preparations for the London 2012 Olympics reached the critical stage of 1,000 days to go before the opening ceremony. This was a significant milestone for everyone involved in the build up, but especially the potential competitors.

Over the next three years competitors will adhere to a strict timetable of preparation and along the way will have major milestones to pass, such as achieving Olympic qualifying standards and performing well in selection trials.

While preparing a grant application should not take 1,000 days, there are parallels to be drawn. As with the Olympics, preparation is vital, there are key milestones en route and a false start is likely to render you disqualified from the event. The latter applies as most grants are not retrospective; if you have already committed or incurred the expenditure, you have probably blown your chances.

So, how do you succeed in a grant application?

The first step is to match your plans for the next three years or so with a potential grant source or sources as different grant schemes have different parameters.

Give some initial thought to:

• future capital expenditure plans 
• the innovative and environmental aspects of these plans or your business
• what makes your company different to others
• what will a grant offer will enable you to do
• how would it affect employment levels

Avoid the “You tell me what grants are available and I will tell you my plans” approach. This almost always fails. The next stage is to meet with the grant awarding body to ascertain whether your project is eligible.

If your application is to fail, it’s better to do so at this stage, then you avoid unnecessary time and expense preparing a full application.

Try to meet the grant authorities face to face rather than submitting an online initial enquiry. Generally, online forms don’t allow you to sell your project or amend plans to match grant parameters. Most grant officials are more than pleased to meet and talk through potential applications, particularly if you have carried out the first step.

Hopefully, you will now have secured approval to proceed with an application. This is not a guarantee of success, just an indication that the grant authority is sufficiently interested to welcome a formal application. Now the real work begins.

Invariably, you will be required to submit a business plan, financial projections and an application form.

Most companies will have the majority of this information to hand. But it’s not just a question of collating the information into the required format. As with the Olympics, only the best applications will succeed, so you really have to promote your company.

The key areas to concentrate on are your track record in: -

• innovation
• the environment
• quality of staff, in terms of salaries, training and development
• economic outputs

Probably the most lucrative grant for the private sector is the Grant for Business Investment scheme. As with the Olympics, this has a qualifying standard. It is a measure of economic output, called the Gross Value Added test, which requires your company to match a growth forecast for your business sector.

Once you’ve submitted your grant application, the next stage is appraisal. This can take the form of a meeting and / or written questions to review the application in more detail.

Then, assuming your application has been successful, the final stage is negotiating the actual grant amount and formal terms.

The time it takes to prepare and submit a successful grant application varies enormously. Typically, we work between three and four months to obtain a decision. Certainly much shorter than the time required to prepare for an Olympic final!

For further information:

If you would like to speak with David Armstrong on any of the issues in this news item please contact him on 01752 264835.

Francis Clark has offices in Exeter, Plymouth, Salisbury, Taunton, Tavistock, Torquay and Truro. Francis Clark is the winner of the ‘Auditor of the Year - Mid Tier’ in the National Financial Directors’ Excellence Awards 2011, and LexisNexis Best General Tax Practice Award 2009. More information is available by logging on at our Online Information Centre