LEO Business Priming and Business Expansion Grants of up to €80,000
Read Our Guide To Business Priming And Business Expansion Grants
A Business Priming Grant is a start-up grant available for micro businesses in their first 18 months to help get the business off the ground. A Business Expansion Grant is to help businesses to grow after the initial 18 month start-up stage. Both can be up to €80,000 and can include costs for website development and digital marketing.
Eligibility Criteria
The grants come from the Department of Business, Enterprise & Innovation and are run by the Local Enterprise Offices and eligibility is on the same bases as for other LEO finance supports.
Your business can already be employing up to ten employees and must be either in manufacturing, internationally traded services, or if you are a domestically traded services business you must be able to show that you have the potential for export.
These grants are mainly geared towards job creation so you will have to demonstrate a capacity for new job creation as part of your growth plan, i.e. in your 3-year financial projections.
Website & Marketing
AycyA can provide services as part of the business priming and business expansion grants.
This can include creating or enhancing a website as required, plus the development of a digital marketing strategy and implementation plan for marketing campaigns with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or other platforms.
Qualifying Expenses
Salaries: for new employees the grant goes towards the first year’s salary and is paid in two tranches at the start and after six months. For salaries of €40,000 or more you will be eligible for the maximum €15,000 grant support for any one salary. Lower salaries receive a proportionately lower grant.
Consultancy, Innovation & Marketing: this includes website development, digital marketing, consultancy fees and other marketing costs and initiatives.
Capital Items: this is limied to such items as fitting out a workspace, office equipment, machinery, fixed technology costs, but does not include mobile items like laptopsor mobile phones. It also excludes purchase of land or buildings.
Financial Projections
You will need to provide 3-years of financial projections as part of your grant application. AycyA can help you with researching the cost of ongoing sales and marketing for online business development efforts. This can include SEO as well as paid digital marketing.
We Can Help!
We will help you secure your grant. We can advise you on various areas of digital, and help you with your application.
Call us on 01-280 9248 or schedule a call using our online diary.
We have 100% application success
When Is The Grant Payment Made?
Once your Business Priming or Business Expansion Grant approval comes through from your local LEO office you can start the project.
Salary drawdown is in advance payable in two tranches. Half is up front and the second half is after six months. For third party suppliers drawdown is after you have paid them in full.
It can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to receive your payment.
