Government Grants
How to Start a Home Business
When You're Strapped for Cash

Federal and State governments have billions of dollars in grant money available through over 4,000 grant programs. With that said, you need to look out for scammers who are trying to take advantage of comsumers looking for grants. Here are some things to watch for:

1. Grant money is paid to you by check, not wired to your bank account. Don't give out your bank account information to someone you don't know.
2. Someone can't guarantee you grant money. Be leary of a company that makes this guarantee to you.
3. When you apply for a grant, you don't have to pay a fee. Watch out for companies that try to charge you a "processing fee" for your grant application.
4. If you did not apply for a grant, but get a letter or phone call saying that you've been awarded one, it's likely to be a scam.

Starting your own business from home is one of the best ways to get out of the rat race. But many entrepreneurs who've already made the decision to start their business from home are strapped for cash.

As the old saying goes, it takes money to make money.

Even though business you start from home are less expensive to get off the ground, they still do take some cash to get started. Many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. They know they need money to make money, but they don't have any. And if they had the money, then they wouldn't need to make more money.

Fortunately, options do exist for entrepreneurs in this situation.

The US Government has quietly created several programs designed for entrepreneurs looking to start a business from home. These programs include free business training courses, free consulting services, business loan programs for entrepreneurs with problem credit, and free government grants.

These programs are designed to promote economic growth in United States.

Here's why the government likes these programs and how you too can benefit from them.

The government helps you start your business. As your business grows and succeeds, you'll need to buy all kinds of products and services. This includes everything from office supplies to computers to accounting services.

As hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs across the country do this each year, those office supply stores are now making more money. Not only are they paying more in income taxes (which the government loves) they are also creating more jobs.

As the office supply company grows, it buys more products from office supply manufacturers. Now the manufacturers create more jobs to handle the demand. The whole process repeats itself as the economy grows and more jobs are created.

Everybody wins. Companies across the board hire more employees. These employees spend more money doing business with local companies (who need more employees to keep up, etc...). Of course now that everybody is making more money, everybody is paying more income tax to Uncle Sam - so he's happy too.

These business growth programs are very popular with politicians - because they pay for themselves.

The problem with these programs is they are not well publicized. The government actually reduced the amount of money for these programs because not enough people used them - mostly because most entrepreneurs don't know about them.

Grant programs are awarded directly to businesses through local city and state governments. Contact them and ask about "economic development" programs in your area.

These programs generally are for large dollar amounts $100k+ and require a fair amount of paperwork.

For smaller businesses, programs have been set up by the federal government. These programs are designed to serve a wide range of entrepreneurs with everything from free services to financial packages.