Advice on grant meeting - specifically on competitors

shnaek

Registered User
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599
Hi all,

forewarned is forearmed as they say, and happily I have been forewarned. I am going to a meeting with the local enterprise board, but I got a call from them telling me not to be optimistic as I'll find it hard to get funding as there are many competitors in my line of business.

I'd really appreciate any advice as to how to deal with this question. I know there are many competitors in my line of work, and I mentioned those competitors in my business plan. I distinguished my work from theirs, and also mentioned 6 clients that I currently have and who have discussed future business with me.

I don't want to give too much away as I have a meeting with them coming up. But I thought no harm in asking the experienced people here how I should best handle the question when it is put to me. Without the funding (a very small amount I might add, less than 10k) I may have to let my clients go. The funding is for equipment which I need for future work.

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. If you need more details you can PM me.

Thanks!
 
In my experience they won't want to support a business/jobs where the support leads to displacing an existing business/jobs. You'll need to show how your business differs from the existing businesses and how supporting yours will not negatively affect the others.
 
In my experience they won't want to support a business/jobs where the support leads to displacing an existing business/jobs. You'll need to show how your business differs from the existing businesses and how supporting yours will not negatively affect the others.

I hear you and can well understand that, but I have clients already and this would be future business from these clients. I've even done some work for competitors which was outside their skill set. Ultimately they are currently my clients which they might have a chance of getting if I went out of business. Unless they are afraid that my work is so good I could entice my competitors clients to jump ship! So perhaps that's what I should tell them. Thanks for the advice.
 
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