A lot of people today are searching for small business grant money to start their own for profit business and thinking that grants are nothing more than free money. Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but small business grant money are hardly free money at all. In fact, they are more like contracts with their own set of obligations and restrictions that you must comply with or risk suffering sanctions imposed by your funder.

In the case of government grants, the rules are even stricter. Every year, Congress allocates something close to 67 million in the form of grants to be distributed to several of the agencies under the Federal Government.

These grants are usually awarded to deserving individuals or nonprofit organizations who have some community-based project in mind, such as a street-paving project and the like. Rarely will you find a government grant awarded to help you set up your own for profit business. Thats why when searching for small business grant money, you shouldnt turn to the government for funding resources.

But if you cant turn to the government, then what is your recourse? And considering how rampant scams are these days, how can you stay assured that what youre applying for is legitimate?

Well, first things first. You should know by now that there are hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding available free to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Yes, the figure sounds a bit suspicious, but come on, when have you ever seen an ad that tells an outright lie? As is most often the case, the ad would be making claims that are partly true and partly false. The false part is that small business grant money is not easy to come by. However, you will find it true that small business grant money is indeed available and if youre lucky, you could even be facing six-digit figures for your funding.

These small business grant moneys come from the government, non-governmental organizations, and private institutions. However, since we already discussed how difficult it is to get government funding for starting a business, lets discuss the non-governmental and private institutions options you have.

In the case of non-governmental or private funding, the grant amount ranges from 5,000 up to some in the six figures. And like all grants, they require absolutely no payback. This is part of the reason why small business grant money is so much more attractive compared to loans. Unfortunately, what makes small business grant money preferable also makes it difficult to find because of the tough competition youll be facing.

Whats more, there are only a few grant sources that provide small business grant money directly to individuals. You will have to actively seek them out, or stand in line for one particularly well-known funding resource. In the latter case, someone else would have run away with your idea and made lots of money with it before your grant application even gets approved. That is why is its always best to search for funding resources first before even thinking about setting up your own business.