The Business Basics Grant Program is back again. Registrations of interest opened on Thursday 24 November 2022. This time, registrations of interest will stay open until 11.59pm on Monday 5 December 2022.
We are excited the Qld Government is offering another round of this program since it supports Queensland Small Businesses in a really practical way, to update their digital presence, increase core skills and adopt best practces. It is an up-front grant given via a cash payment of $5,000. There is no co-contribution required.
What are the Business Basics Grant Qld Eligibility Criteria?
The first step is to check whether you are eligible for this grant. The main eligibility criteria for the Business Basics Grant Qld are:
- being a small business with headquarters in Queensland (can be in South East Queensland or regional Queensland);
- have an active ABN and be GST registered;
- have an expected turnover for the last financial year (2021 – 2022) of $300,000 or less;
- having less than 20 employees (by head count);
- the business owners or directors not be insolvent or an undischarged bankrupt;
- the business not having received funding under rounds 1, 2, or 3 of the Business Basics Grants Program.
Your business must maintain each one of these eligibility criteria for the entire duration of the grant funded activity.
The new 2 stage process
For the first time, the process has been broken into 2 stages:
- Registering your Interest
- Applying for a Grant if the government invites you to submit a full application.
Not every business that registers interest will be invited to submit a full application. Plus, not all applications will be funded. The applications are competitively assessed against each other. You have to be in it to have a chance though!
Only some businesses who register their interest will receive invitations to submit a full application.
There is no appeal process if you do not receive an invitation to lodge a full application.
Previous rounds (rounds 1, 2 & 3) only had 1 stage, which meant there was no registration of interest process and applications closed within hours of opening.
STAGE 1: REGISTERING INTEREST
You must complete and submit a Registration of Interest online through the DESBT SmartGrants portal.
If you are not already registered with the portal, we recommend you create a login as soon as possible.
To register your interest, you must complete and submit an online registration of interest (ROI) through the DESBT SmartyGrants portal.
The ROI is a short form that will ask you to:
- provide core business information (e.g. your business address, ABN and GST registration status)
- confirm your business meets all the eligibility criteria of the grant program.
Registrations can be completed anytime while stage 1 is open, which is between 9:00am on Thursday 24 November 2022 and 11:59pm on Monday 5 December 2022
Valid ROIs will be assessed through a ballot system, with a number of applications identified to move to Stage 2:, which is the full application assessment.
Each valid ROI has an equal opportunity to be selected since it is a random ballot system. The number of registrations selected will be sufficient to enable DESBT to undertake a competitive assessment process at Stage 2.
There will be no appeal process for applications that are not selected to move to Stage 2.
Stage 1 does not require a quote to be submitted, nor any details about how you would use the grant in the event you are invited to submit a full application.
stage 2: DETAILED APPLICATION PROCESS
The businesses drawn from the ballot will be invited move to Stage 2 and complete a full application.
That full application will be competitively assessed against other full applications. Not all applications will be offered the grant.
Stage 2 is where you will need to submit your quote and full application details. What you submit as part of that application, will be competitively assessed against other businesses, for selection of those businesses to be offered the grant.
If your business is chosen by random ballot in stage 1 and you are invited to submit a full application, then stage 2 will be open to submit full applications between 12 December 2022 and 23 January 2023.
We can prepare your full Grant Application for you!
If you contact us to provide a quote to use to apply for the business basics $5,000 cash grant, then we will prepare your quote urgently.
We will also provide you with the Statutory Declaration you need to sign and help you draft your full application grant answers.
That’s pretty much all the work done for you! We are very experienced at writing grant applications, so we know what they are looking for when assessing them. Our experience means we can draft what you need pretty quickly and give you the best chance of having your application be successful.
Not every application submitted will be offered the grant.
The applications submitted are competitively assessed against each other before the lucky recipients are chosen. Preparing a really good grant application will be crucial.
What can the Grant be used for?
The Small Business Basics Grant Qld can be used for:
- Website Builds or Upgrades
- Training & Coaching
- Strategic Marketing Services
- Professional Business Advice
- Business Continuity & Succession
You can submit 1 quote alone, or 2 quotes, but you cannot submit more than 2 quotes. The work detailed on the quote(s) must total at least $5,000.
You need to:
- decide what you want to use the quote for; AND
- choose the business you want to do that work.
You can either find one business to do the work, or you can choose 2 different businesses to do the work.
We specialise in website builds, upgrades, refreshes, SEO, website & blog copywriting, as well as in providing strategic marketing advice.
Website Builds or Upgrades & Training
The business basics $5,000 grant can be used for new website builds, as well as redesigns, refreshes, revamps or upgrades of an existing website.
This includes:
- a website refresh;
- a conversion rate optimisation project (convert your website visitors to clients/customers);
- detailed technical search engine optimisation of your website content;
- adding things like an e-commerce store, online booking functionality, a membership program, online payments, a course etc ;
- developing new website content (eg: seo optimised blog articles) and copywriting;
- training & coaching in using & updating your website and digital technologies.
STRATEGIC MARKETING SERVICES & Professional business advice
Our strategic marketing work is customised to each business and their own unique needs. It can include:
- a comprehensive audit (including SEO analysis) of your existing website;
- keyword analysis with search engine traffic statistics for your website content;
- targeted keywords to utilise in future content (designed to drive more traffic based on current search trends in your industry);
- identifying or refining your website or digital marketing goals and priorities;
- considering market segments and the most appropriate marketing channels;
- developing and differentiating your business through its ‘Unique Value Proposition’;
- identifying and targeting your key audiences, including which customer groups are likely to produce the best results for you;
- create and execute the marketing campaign;
- both creating content for the marketing campaign and posting or implementing it.
The Business Basics Grant Competition is fierce!
The grant has limited funding. It’s also competitively assessed. This means you are competing against numerous others and the detail they have in their applications.
Once a certain amount of applications meeting the criteria are received, the round will close. They will then competitively assess those applications to decide who will be offered the grant.
This is round 4 of the program. The first time the grant opened, by 12:40pm there were already 3,000 applications submitted, and so the grant was closed to new applications within 4 hours!
Last time for round 3, the demand was so high the website crashed and so the number of businesses who were able to actually submit applications were limited.
Applications open at 9.00am on Wednesday 24 November, 2022 to be submitted online. Based on what happened before, there’ll be an avalanche of applications, so we recommend registering your interest early and not waiting until closer to the closing time of 11:59pm on Monday 5 December, 2022.
If you’re interested in getting to the full application stage, there are a number of things that need to be done in preparation and we recommend that you contact us sooner rather than later.
If your small business could use a $5,000 Business Basics Grant here’s what to do now:
- Easily check your eligibility for the grant using the tool in our client portal (access it from the form below at no cost with no obligation).
- If you’re eligible for this grant, register and are invited to submit a full application, then we will help you prepare everything you need to submit your full application.
- This will also register your email to be kept up to date with the grant timeline and any new information you need to know, as well as give you access to a sample application, full guidelines, terms & conditions, FAQ’s etc.
The Qld Government website states the 3 things you will need to submit if you are successful in stage 1 and invited to submit a full application are:
- 1 or 2 quotes which total at least $5,000;
- A certified statutory declaration that you meet the criteria. We can also prepare & email this to you to get signed;
- The answers ready to paste into the fields in the online application on the Qld Government website after stage 2 opens (12 December 2022 – 23 January 2023) about how this grant will make your business more competitive. We can email you a sample application and even help prepare these answers for you.
Remember: If Applying for the Business Basics Grant
The Qld Business Basics $5,000 Cash Grant is already open to accept registrations of interest. Registrations close at 11.59pm on Monday 5 December 2022.
Previous rounds operated differently, and the government’s website was only open for applications for a few hours only, with demand so high, that many people were unable to even log in to try to submit their application.
Since there is now a different 2 stage process, with registrations of interest (stage 1) being open for 12 days, expect competition to be fierce.
What you submit in your registration of interest is going to be judged against many others, so quality matters and you need to get it right. This is where we can help give you the best chance of success.
Prepare a Successful Application
The quality of the quote you submit with your application does matter.
We will do all this to help your small business:
- assess your business and audit any existing website urgently,
- help you determine your priorities,
- suggest how the Business Basics Grant Qld might best be used in your small business;
- Give you a highly relevant quote that will help you qualify for the grant and put you in the best position to be one of those chosen to receive it.
Email, Message or Phone Michelle Beatty at MRB Creative ASAP for help with your application.
You can also find out more, as well as check your eligibility, by filling out the enquiry form below, or phone Michelle on 0490 974 202 if you prefer.
