Businesses across Argyll and Bute are being encouraged to explore council grant support through a new streamlined system designed to make finding the right funding easier.
Argyll and Bute Council offers a range of grants for eligible businesses looking to develop and grow, but companies will now only need to complete one Business Funding Enquiry Form to register their interest.
Information provided through the form will be shared with the council teams responsible for relevant funding programmes.
Those teams can then contact businesses directly to discuss which grants may be suitable and explain the application process where appropriate.
The change is intended to remove the need for businesses to provide the same information several times while helping enquiries reach the correct council team more quickly.
It also provides businesses with a single starting point when they know they need financial support but are unsure which particular grant or programme might apply to them.
Council Leader Jim Lynch said:
“We know that navigating different funding opportunities can take time, so we want to make the process of finding the right support as straightforward as possible for local businesses.
“By completing one Business Funding Enquiry Form, businesses can tell us about their needs, and our teams can identify the grants that may be relevant to them.
“Even if there isn’t a suitable funding opportunity available immediately, we’d still encourage businesses to register their interest.
“It will help us understand what support our local businesses need and means we can let them know about relevant opportunities that may arise.”
The council is stressing that completing the enquiry form does not guarantee that a grant will be awarded.
Instead, it allows officers to understand what individual businesses are looking for and connect them with appropriate funding and other support where it is available.
Registering an interest could also prove useful for businesses whose needs do not currently match an available scheme because the information will help the council understand where demand for future support exists.
For small businesses in particular, where finding and applying for funding can compete with the everyday demands of running the company, having one route into the council’s different grant programmes should make the first stage considerably simpler.
Businesses across Argyll and Bute can now complete the Business Funding Enquiry Form through the council website to find out what support may be available.
