Qld Govt Grants - COVID-19 Edition

The Queensland State Government have made available funding for small businesses (and micro-businesses) who have been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdown restrictions - to help them to "adapt and sustain their operations, and build resilience".

The initiative is called the Small Business COVID-19 Adaption Grant Program.

These are grants of up to $10,000.00 paid to you by Qld Government, and unlike previous Qld Govt small business grants there is NO NEED for you to MATCH  FUNDS with your own contribution.

The funds can be used towards the following (services we can help you with are highlighted):

• financial, legal or other professional advice to support business sustainability and diversification
• strategic planning, financial counselling or business coaching aligned to business development and diversification
• building the business through marketing and communications activities, for example, content development (web pages, mobile apps, visual and audio media etc.)
• digital/technological strategy development
• digital training or re-training to adapt to new business models
• capital costs associated with meeting COVID-19 SAFE requirements
• specialised digital equipment or business specific software to move business operations online (e.g. logistics program for online ordering)
• meeting business costs, including utilities, rent.

If you have a small business with less than 20 employees, with an ABN, are headquartered in Queensland, and can demonstrate that your business revenue has been significantly impacted since 23 March 2020 (for at least 1 month) due to COVID-19 ... you could get a leg-up from the government for things like:

• Moving your office servers into a professional data centre
• A website for your business (or adding online self-service to an existing site)
• A private mobile app or website for your workers to perform their jobs better or remotely (e.g. a timesheeting or safety checklist app)
• A mobile app for iOS or Android to help your customers engage with your business
• An online store
• Adding the ability for your existing clients to pay their bills online through your website
• Setting up and maintaining a social media page/feed (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, etc)
• Training or consultancy for yourself or your staff to learn how to use technology better for your business

It's easy ....

1. Talk to us (tap here or the "Chat" button to the right) to work out costs and what's possible
2. Fill in the form online
3. Wait for a decision
4. Make your business smarter! :-)

To help you take advantage of this initiative, we have come up with some excellent options that fall well within the grant budget to give you the best bang for your government buck!

The funding is currently available and has no end date (Qld Govt will likely close it without warning once their budget has been spent), so if you're interested in improving your business and help prepare for potential future shutdowns, give us a shout and also check out the SBCAGP web page.

And don't forget: if you have a mobile app or web application idea you may like to apply for our very own Creative Intersection "Bright Idea Grant" for app ideas. 

Update 25/5/20 - It appears that Qld Govt have already exhausted their funds so applications have closed ... keep checking though as some rejected applications may mean funding becomes available again after the initial assessment stage.

Update 16/6/20 - Another $100M of funding has been made available and applications will resume with Round 2 starting on 1st July 2020 ... so get your submissions ready to go!

 Update 2/7/20 - Round 2 opened yesterday and is being exhausted very quickly for both regional and South East Queensland applicants.  Several of our clients have had their applications successfully approved in the previous round so great news for them and we're looking forward to helping them improve their businesses in the coming months.