We love being able to share good news, and here is a very satisfying result we were able to obtaIn for a client.
Recently Lisa worked to support a health and wellness start-up business to apply for the Australian Government Boosting Female Founders Initiative grant.
As a two-stage process, with Expression of Interest followed by Invitation to Apply, this $18M, three-year funding program is highly competitive! It forms part of the government’s Women’s Economic Security Package, aimed at providing targeted support to entrepreneurial female founders to launch and scale their new business ventures, innovate and create new jobs.
The experienced business owner had recently founded a start-up to take a revolutionary new product to the Australian market. She’d spent several years perfecting a new wellness formula, but progress had stalled. She had interest from big chain stores like Costco, but no funds for production runs, distribution, marketing or to undertake new product development. So the business owner contacted Lisa for advice.
Lisa quickly gained an understanding of the business’s needs and helped to position and strengthen its chances for success in the open round. The business plan was worked up as Lisa helped to articulate business ideas and strengthen the budget and outcomes. Lisa helped to establish a claim for extra funding under the guidelines, raising the potential grant return to almost the maximum grant limit. Lisa also wrote an Expression of Interest application that was strong and well positioned and the application was selected out of over 2000 applications to progress to Stage 2.
From there, Lisa and the business owner collaborated over long days (and nights) within a short time frame to pull together an impressive submission that perfectly positioned the business as a strong, value-for-money applicant. The application was developed, the business plan updated with new figures and a pitch deck was worked on and refined. It was a massive task but well worth the potential six-figure outcome.
After a nail-biting assessment period, this female-founded business was announced as one of 51 successful recipients Australia-wide! Since receiving a six-figure grant, the business has been able to move forward at an accelerated rate, to build its visibility in the national market.
Could grant funding be right for your business? Book a call now and let’s have a chat.