Securing Grants for Small Business Owners

Small businesses are the worst hit when it comes to inflation and overhead costs. While most of them have heard of FREE government grants in the UK, the regular perception of the lengthy application process puts them off. Before even getting into the loop of looking for a suitable grant or planning to fill out an application form for their business, they are put off by the fact that, the process would be tiresome, it’s a false hope to receive free money from the government and the timeframe to actually get them is way too long. And believe us, you are not wrong, it is a correct perception. 

Businesses, with huge overhead costs, tend to be the ones who shut their doors first, and sadly, without even knowing there are FREE Government Grants available in their regions. If you read news regularly, you will observe a vast number of bars/pubs and small businesses in the west midlands have shut down recently and many are in the process of closing down.  

Small businesses make up a huge chunk of our economy, with 99.9% being startups and SMEs. It is a massive loss to take in for the government with businesses finding it hard to keep up and easier to close. Black Country has been offering small business grants for SMEs in Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, and Wolverhampton to receive FREE Energy Audit and Grants up to £100,000 towards helping businesses reduce their overhead costs such as the energy costs, which are always high.  

Small business grants in the Black Country are there to help support SMEs understand their energy losses in their business premises and evaluate ways to reduce it. Pro Enviro has been contracted by the West Midlands Combined Authority to deliver FREE Energy Assessments to all SMEs in the Black Country region (Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, and Wolverhampton) with a grant opportunity of up to £100K.  

Small business grants like these are here to help support businesses who fall into the SME criteria. Businesses who fall in the below criteria can apply for these small business grants: 

• You own a UK based business/a foreign company but also have registered in the UK. 
• Employees count less than 250 
• Annual turnover less than £36m 
• At least 1 year in trading 

These small business grants are ZERO PAYBACK grants with 0% interest rates (which means this funding does not need to be paid back; it is awarded to help businesses grow and succeed) they are solely there to help SMEs sustain their business and not shut down.

For those who are not aware of how these grants work, there is a quite straightforward process explained below:

STEP 1 – You fill out the application form here - https://www.businessgrowthwestmidlands.org.uk/net-zero/decarbonisation-net-zero-energy-audit-register/ 

STEP 2 – We contact you to confirm all the details in the form and get your 12-month energy bills from you. We then book your FREE Energy Audit (which will be taken care of by us at Pro Enviro). 

STEP 3 – We visit your site and do an energy audit. Prepare a detailed report and share it with you in 2-3 weeks' time.  

STEP 4 – Once the report is shared, we ask whether you are happy to proceed with grant funding, and mind it, this is 50% match-funded grants. So, you would be putting in 50% of the money and the rest would be covered by the government.  

STEP 5 – If you are happy to proceed, we then ask you to get 3 quotations from different vendors and share your preference for whom you would like to go ahead with.  

STEP 6 – We submit your grant application for approval to the local authority. Once approved, you will be asked to go ahead and get the installation done at your end and keep all the bills and invoices safe to claim back your 50% amount from the government.  

That is about it, as simple as it can be for small businesses. These small business grants are here till March 2025, so we are encouraging small business owners to apply for them as soon as possible, as the sooner they apply, the sooner they will be in the process of getting their audits completed.