To apply for the Business Start-Up Grant your business must be:
- based in Argyll and Bute
- micro- or small-sized (fewer than 50 employees and less than €10m turnover or balance sheet total of less than €10m)
- ready to start actively trading (within 4 weeks of application) /started actively trading within 3 months of application date
- providing employment for you or a member of staff equivalent to the current real Living Wage or above or demonstrate clear potential to do so within 12 months (ie equivalent to a salary of nearly £22,000 at the current rate based on a 35 hour week The Calculation | Living Wage Foundation)
- Full-time (35+ hours a week) to be eligible for a grant of up to £1,000. Part-time businesses (16-34 hours per week) are eligible for a maximum grant of £500.
- Applicants must be aged 18 years and over.
- Only one application per business or individual can be made. Where there is more than one owner of the business, for example in a partnership or limited company, details of all the other individuals involved in the business must be provided with the application.
- Applications from social enterprises may be considered where there is evidence of earned income from trading or service level agreements. Grant income or donations are not considered earned income for the purposes of this grant.
- Franchise businesses must be ethical franchises and accredited by the British Franchise Association.
- Only UK residents and those ‘granted leave to remain’ in the UK are eligible to apply for the grant. Applicants will be required to provide the Council with evidence that they are UK residents or have ‘leave to remain’, for example, a passport or letter from the Home Office.
Ineligible
- Applicants already running a business in Argyll and Bute are are not eligible to apply for this grant to start another business.
- Applications from those with debts owing to the Council will not be approved and the Council shall carry out a check against business rates and/or Council tax as part of the application process.
- You will not be awarded grant funding if it is likely to have a significant negative impact on other Argyll and Bute based businesses.
- Part-time business of less than 16 hours per week are not eligible to apply.
- The following are ineligible to apply: any business involved in the sex industry; politics; religion; nude or semi-nude modeling or photography; multi-level marketing/pyramid selling or any business that may bring Argyll and Bute Council into disrepute. Organisations with restricted membership are not eligible to apply.
- Projects eligible for full funding through other public bodies are excluded.
- Undischarged bankrupts and those with bankruptcy proceedings pending against them are ineligible for the grant and are not permitted to apply.
- Debt repayment costs incurred by applicants are ineligible for a grant.
- Applications from those who have received more than £315,000 in public sector subsidies over the last 3 financial years cannot be approved.
Please read all the information before contacting Business Gateway on 01546 604555 if you have any questions about this funding.