Government Grants To Start A Restaurant

Search And Apply For Government Grants

To search or apply for grants, use the free, official website, Grants.gov. Commercial sites may charge a fee for grant information or application forms. Grants.gov centralizes information from more than 1,000 government grant programs. It’s designed to help states and organizations find and apply for grants.

• Email notifications – Sign up to be notified by email about new grant opportunities.

Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance Grant

Certain small business owners applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan through the SBA are eligible for an emergency cash advance of up to $10,000. This advance can be forgiven by the SBA if you spend it on maintaining payroll, paid leave, increased costs, mortgage or lease payments, or other financial obligations.

Targeted EIDL funds are available to businesses in low-income communities that can demonstrate a more than 30% reduction of revenue during an eight-week period since March 2, 2020. Your business must have previously received an EIDL Advance for less than $10,000 to be eligible, or previously applied for an EIDL Advance but did not receive one due to a lack of program funding. The original EIDL Advance program, authorized as part of the CARES Act, is no longer active.

No action is required to qualify for a Targeted EIDL grant. The SBA will reach out to eligible businesses. If you receive an email about an SBA grant, make sure it arrives from an address ending in @sba.gov to avoid a potential business loan scam.

Dairy Business Innovation Alliance Grant Program

Amount of Grant: Not released yetDue Date: March 31

If you own a dairy-based farm or are a processor in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota or South Dakota, you may be eligible for a grant through the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance Grant Program. While grant amounts arent released yet, previous recipients received up to $250,000 through similar programs offered through the DBIA. Applications open on February 1, and it is recommended you attend the DBIA webinar series to prepare yourself for the application.

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Federal Business Grants For Small Business

Although there are plenty of federal business grants for small businesses, they are primarily open to companies in the science, technology, or health fields. If your business is involved in research and development or in scientific initiativesâincluding environmental and climate initiativesâthen federal grant programs might be able to cover some of your expenses and help with your small business funding.

Here are the top federal business grants for small business:

Maintaining High Health Standards

Your restaurant or catering business will be inspected and appraised, so you should strive to maintain high health standards. When you are dealing with health issues, there are several standards that you may need to be aware of including:

• Food temperature control
• Protection of food from contamination
• Employee hygiene and hand washing
• Maintenance and sanitation of surfaces and equipment that come into contact with food
• Maintenance and sanitation of surfaces and equipment that do not come into contact with food
• Maintenance and sanitation of washrooms
• Storage and removal of waste
• Pest control.

Additional tax requirements that may apply to restaurants and caterers in Ontario include:

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Eastern Ontario Development Fund

This program provides funding support for economic development projects in Eastern Ontario. These idea behind the projects should be eventual business growth and broad positive economic impact by filling one of the following needs in Eastern Ontario, including:

• Creating jobs
• Attracting private sector investment
• Encouraging innovation and collaboration

For-profit businesses in urban areas need to invest $500,000 in their projects and commit to creating at least five new jobs.

Businesses then are able to receive up to 15% of the eligible project costs, either in the form of a loan or a grant. If the business obtains a loan, up to 30% of it may be forgiven if it hits goals and targets.

Up to $5 million per project is available as a loan or up to $1.5 million in a grant per project, but the Eastern Ontario Development Fund awards grants far less commonly than loans. The loans are interest free for the length of the project, which may be up to four years,

The geographic area the Eastern Ontario Development Fund covers includes:

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation offers multiple funding opportunities for business projects.

Funding is available in either a grant up to $400,000, a loan up to $1 million, or a combination grant/loan for up to a total of $1 million. Existing farms in Northern Ontario can use this program for items like buildings and equipment.

The New Support For Business Creation And Takeover

The NACRE is presented as an aid for the realization of your project and a support for its development for a period of three years.

It is intended for young creators under the age of 26, beneficiaries of solidarity income, job seekers benefiting from Assistance to Return to Employment and job seekers over 50.

Concretely, this is a system that will advise you in all of your procedures and will provide you with suitable financing if necessary .

Depending on your case, the duration of the NACRE can vary between 4 months and 3 years.

For more information on this device, visit the Public Service website !

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What Is A Grant From The Government

A grant is one of the ways the government funds ideas and projects to provide public services and stimulate the economy. Grants support critical recovery initiatives, innovative research, and many other programs. You can find a list of projects supported by grants in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance . You can also learn about the federal grant process and search for government grants at Grants.gov.

Ask Your Landlord For Options

When you find restaurant real estate, ask your landlord what your options are regarding the restaurant buildout. Your landlord may reduce your rates if you offer him a share of your restaurant. He or she may also offer a tenant improvement allowance. Often referred to as TIA or TI in a letter of intent or lease agreement, the tenant improvement allowance is typically a dollar amount multiplied by the square footage or size of the space.

Many restaurants have contentious relationships with their landlords. Make sure, up front, that everything is in writing, and if you can, work with a lawyer or restaurant real estate adviser to request a tenant improvement allowance in the letter of intent.

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Corporate Small Business Grants

Government grants for small businesses are great, but the requirements are often hyper-specific, or the funding amounts arent that large. Big corporations, on the other hand, will often provide small business grants to contest winners. For you, its money to grow your business. For them, itâs a PR win, netting loyal corporate customers and a lot of goodwill.

The difference here is that many corporate-sponsored small business grants involve pitch competitions or something similar. Not all do, of course, but youâll want to be aware that applying to a corporate grant might involve more work. With that, though, comes the potential for publicityâand for runner-up prizes if you dont win first prize.

Evaluating Your Options For Funding

Financing is one of the most fundamental aspects of starting and growing your small business.

Ideally, it will come in the form of grants, but being realistic about where you get your capital will help ensure you dont get stalled when youre trying to move forward.

Help your fellow small business retailers out! Share any grants or government funding opportunities below that may be worth investigating

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Find Some Potential Investors

One of the quickest ways you could generate the money needed to start your own restaurant would be to find someone who would be willing to put down capital and help you get started.

Maybe you have some friends or family who could help you. You could also ask a business connection, such as a colleague or former colleague. It can definitely be difficult to ask somebody you know for money, but oftentimes people will have the desire to see you become successful.

An important thing to keep in mind when taking this route is that money can put your personal relationships in jeopardy. If you want to ask someone you know for money, make sure they understand that it is an investment and that it may all be lost.

Dont guarantee success to them, because you never know what could happen. Small businesses fail all too often, and if you promise someone that yours will be successful and it turns out not to be, you could ruin your relationship, and even your reputation.

If you dont personally know anybody with the money or the willingness to help, peer-to-peer investment networks may present a solution. These networks will connect people or groups looking to make investments with small businesses looking for investors.

Upstart and FundingCircle are two such peer-to-peer investment sites that you can look into, and there are several more around the web.

How To Get A Grant To Open A Restaurant

Starting any business requires time and money, and restaurants are no exception. In fact, the average cost of opening a restaurant is close to $500,000. While it is possible to cut costs, you still need a significant amount of money to get your business off the ground. One way to obtain financing without drowning in debt is to apply for restaurant grants.

The government does not offer restaurant grants, but you may apply for minority grants or small business grants to obtain financing. Small tweaks such as using locally sourced ingredients and recyclable materials in your dining venue can increase your chances of success.

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What Not To Do To Raise Startup Capital

When looking on how to get money to open a restaurant, its just as important to know what not to do. As tempting as some of these options can be when youre starving for capital, there are certain methods for raising money that you should avoid at all cost.

Re-mortgaging your house

Borrowing against an existing mortgage to raise startup capital puts your home at risk if your business fails. A failing business may be one thing, but its quite another to lose a business and a home at the same time.

Cashing in your retirement savings

Your retirement fund should not be used as startup capital unless youve spoken with a financial advisor who has a feasible plan for you to replace the funds.

Racking up credit card debt

Credit cards should never be used to fund a restaurant startup. Credit cards have high interest rates that make repayment difficult when charges start to rack up. Youre much better off qualifying for a loan at a reasonable interest rate than relying on credit cards to provide you with startup capital.

While it may be difficult to get financing for a restaurant, you still have many options you can exhaust before pulling too much money from your personal savings. Think of the restaurant financing landscape like many forks in the road: each is its own adventure, but they are all worth exploring for their potential.

How Can I Build Up My Equity

You can use several methods to build up your equity, such as:

Personal savings

Dipping into your own pocket is an excellent way to kick-start your business and show investors just how dedicated you are to its success.

Personal savings generally won’t be enough to cover the total amount of equity needed to obtain funding. If this is the case for you, you can supplement the rest of this amount from alternative sources.

Love money

Love money refers to money invested into your business by loved ones, such as your family and friends.

One benefit of this form of investment is that it’s often easier and quicker to obtain: your relatives know you and trust your judgment, so it’s often easier to convince them to support and invest in your business than an investor you’ve never met before.

There are, however, two disadvantages to love money:

• the sums collected are sometimes very small .
• if the business faces difficulty it can cause tension – as you’ll be forced to tell your relatives that you lost their money.

Crowdfunding for restaurants

Crowdfunding is another very effective funding method for anyone pondering how to secure funding for a restaurant.

The idea is wonderfully simple: set up a campaign on a crowdfunding platform, tell your story, and wait to be put in contact with like-minded individuals who wish to financially support your venture.

It’s up to you to decide how to thank donors for their contribution:

• nothing
• rewards ,

Private investors

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Look For Angel Investors

If youre feeling lucky, you could always try reaching to the heavens for some money or just look into some angel investors.

Traditionally, angel investors are wealthy individuals who will invest in startup businesses, usually in exchange for equity . There are some well-known angel investors who have invested in hundreds of new businesses, and if you think youve got a great idea, it might be worth reaching out to one of them.

If you do reach out to an angel investor, make sure youve got a great sales pitch for your restaurant. Foodservice businesses are high-risk investments, and that may make it difficult to sell someone on it.

These days, there are also angel investor websites that provide capital out to emerging businesses. One such site is ClearAngel. The Angel Investment Network is another site that helps connect entrepreneurs to angel investors who may be interested in their business.

The Guarantee Fund At The Initiative Of Women

The FGIF is a guarantee fund granted to all women who wish to create, develop or take over a business, regardless of their status and the legal form of their business.

However, the responsibility of the business must be fully assumed by the woman applying for the FGIF, and her business must exist / have been taken over less than 5 years ago.

Regarding the duration of the loan granted, it can range from 2 to 7 years and its minimum amount is 5,000 . The maximum guaranteed percentage of the loan is 70%, and its amount is limited to 45,000.

If you mobilize another guarantee than the FGIF, this percentage will be limited to 80% at most for these two guarantees.

To obtain the FGIG, contact the Territorial Fund of the France Active network in your region , which will give you the procedure to follow in order to put together a file.

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Iowa Business Development Grant Recycling

Iowa provides a wide range of business development grants. The states focus is on businesses that create manufacturing jobs and enhance Iowas other industries. There are also grants for retail businesses that are rehabilitating downtown buildings. You can see the latest opportunities on Iowas grants portal.

Ontario Ministry Of Agriculture Food And Rural Affairs

Through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, processors, producers, and other agri-businesses can receive funding aimed at helping them modernize their operations or equipment. This is a cost-share funding opportunity.

The Ontario Agri-Food Technologies programs offer multiple repayable grants to businesses that have ideas to solve impediments to the commercialization of agricultural or agri-tech projects of services. The Rapid Response to Business Opportunities grant is for $10,000 per applicant, while the Rapid Response to Research Needs cost sharing grant is for up to $20,000 per applicant.

With the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative, funding is available that stimulates innovation for the agri-food sector, promotes food safety, and strengthens rural communities. The funding for this project is a combination from federal and provincial departments. Each year, the initiative has specific priority areas it focuses on with the funding.

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How To Apply For A Government Grant For A Restaurant

An owner of a business seeking financial help may qualify for a government grant. The best thing about a grant: The money does not have to be paid back. The most challenging part: qualifying for one. Each government grant has specific eligibility requirements. While most grants are only offered to state officials and organizations that carry out a public purpose, there are often grants for small businesses whose services satisfy a public need. For example, the only restaurant in an up-and-coming area or a type of restaurant that targets the minority population in the community could qualify for a government grant. The only way to know is to search through available opportunities.

Visit the official website for government grants. This is the only trusted website for reliable government grant information. To begin searching for grants for your restaurant, click on the find grant opportunities located on the left side of the page.

Register for the government grants website. If you qualify for a grant, register and apply online. Registration is free. You do not need to register if you are just browsing.

Apply for a restaurant grant. The application can be done online. However, some applications may require you to submit documentation. You will be able to track your application online by logging into your account.

Tips

References

Small Business Innovation Research Program

The SBIR program is designed for small businesses engaged in research and development that have commercial potential. The SBIR aims to stimulate technological innovation and scientific entrepreneurship. Eleven government agencies participate in the program, and each creates their own eligibility guidelines, research and development topics, and reviews applications. Grants generally start between $25,000 and $250,000, but if your business shows promise, then you can receive additional small business grants of more than $1 million.

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