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19, October 2017

The Signs Your Manufacturing Company Should Seek Grant Funding - Part 1

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This post was written by Micki Vandeloo, President of Lakeview Consulting, Inc. Micki’s company has obtained over $20 million dollars in grant funding for her clients, most of whom are in the manufacturing community.  Micki is considered an expert in the field of for-profit grant writing and published the book, THE For-Profit Grant Writing Guide, in 2014.  She partners with Impact Dakota to find and access grant funding to help their clients accelerate growth and innovation.

I walk through a potential client’s shop and a new piece of machinery catches my eye.  I ask the company leader if he applied for any grant funding to offset the purchase, and he looks at me with a blank or inquisitive stare.  He then says, “I didn’t know I could get grant funding.” 

This scenario has played itself over and over again throughout my grant writing career.  More often than not, manufacturers simply don’t know when they can or should apply for funding. 

If you are experiencing any of the following situations or decisions, please consider finding and, if available, applying for grant funding or incentives to reduce your cost, increase your profitability and increase the return on investment for new capital or building projects.

  • You are adding employees to your payroll. Your new product is wildly successful or your sales team has done a bang up job developing new clients.  You need to hire more employees to address the increased demand.  There is likely funding in the form of grants or incentives for your company if you are adding jobs.
  • You are increasing your capital investment. Maybe you just acquired a new product line from another company and you need to invest in equipment to produce the new widgets.  Or perhaps an old piece of equipment finally died, forcing you to purchase a newer, more energy efficient model.  In either case, there is likely funding or incentives available to help offset the capital investment. 
  • You are instituting a new training program. Many states have training grants that manufacturers can apply for.  If you are putting together training plans for your next fiscal year, there may be funding to pay for a portion of the training costs.  In addition, there are likely economic development tax credits available to cover qualifying employees’ wages while they are being training if they are new workers. 
  • Foreign trade has negatively impacted your revenues. If you produce a product that has seen a drop in demand due to foreign competition, there is a federal program, the Mid America Trade Adjustment Assistance Corporation (TAAC)that may help you pay for a variety of services needed to help you grow your business in the challenging global climate.
  • You are opening a new manufacturing or distribution location. Again, this type of project often results in new jobs and new capital and infrastructure investment.   I highly encourage companies considering a new location or locations to invest in grant research for any potential site options to help inform the site selection process. 

In the next post, I will discuss how to know if your company is prepared to request funding for the above activities.  Do you have the team, financial history, and project planning in place to most effectively find and access grant funding? 

If you find yourself in any of the above situations, or in a scenario that involves job creation, capital investment, increased recycling operations, training or research and development, contact the folks at Impact Dakota.They will help you obtain the resources you need to find and access funding!

ManufacturingMoney-SM.pngAlso, if you are interested in learning more about funding to support your growth and innovation, register for our upcoming webinar, Manufacturing Money, on 10/25 at 10 am.  Micki Vandeloo, GPC, President of Lakeview Consulting, Inc. will explain the why, what and how of manufacturing grants, and answer any questions you have!   Click here to register for this valuable webinar!

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