If you were to shake a large, muck covered stick in the general direction of a public sector body, you’d probably find more grant schemes than you could cope with.  Start-up finance, grow-on finance, energy rebates, you name it and there’s probably a grant out there somewhere for it.  And that’s without even considering European funding route.

 

We’re going to look at the snazzy SFIE Grant Scheme.  That’s the Selective Finance for Investment in England scheme, for those of us who don’t talk public-sectorese…

The SFIE scheme comes direct from the esteemed offices of the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI if you need another acronym) and aims to encourage businesses to invest in land, buildings, machinery and plant to help them expand.  It is only available within Assisted Areas (AAs) – ie the more deprived parts of the country.  And Arun, being a place of polar opposites, qualifies.

The level of funding that you might receive will depend entirely on the project that you’re hoping to carry out with your grant.  The higher the gains to the local economy in terms of skills, productivity and employment, the greater the funds that you stand to gain. 

Money for nothing?

To be eligible for a SFIE grant from SEEDA, you need to be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME), which a vast amount of businesses within Arun area are.  You also need to be able to demonstrate your unique selling points (USPs) to differentiate you from the competition.  Think of it like a tie-breaker competition – you and two others have the right answers, but it’s the final outstanding feature that decides who wins. 

In terms of SME definitions (to reduce confusion), SEEDA and the overlords of European business bureaucracy have issued new guidance on how to define such enterprises.  These are as follows:

To find out if you are an enterprise (the E of SME), consider the following statement:
“An enterprise is an entity engaged in an economic activity, regardless of its legal form.” 
Does this sound like you?  The chances are that, if you’re reading this, you’re an enterprise under the above definition. 

To work out if you’re micro, small or medium sized, see which bracket you fall into from the below table: 

Size	Head count*	Annual Turnover	Annual Balance Sheet Total
Micro	Less than 10	Less than 2million Euros	Less than 2million Euros
Small	Less than 50	Less than 10million Euros	Less than 10million Euros
Medium	Less than 250	Less than 50million Euros	Less than 43million Euros

 
*including permanent, temporary seasonal workers and partners in the business, but excluding maternity/paternity leavers, apprentices or vocational educational placements

Now that that’s cleared up and you know where you are in the world of European bureaucracy, it’s time to move onto the next set of criteria.

For full eligibility for a SFIE Grant, you need to be looking to invest in manufacturing or service industries that supply a national/regional rather than purely local market, and you must be wanting to use your cash to get long term productivity, skills and employment gains.

The exact criteria that will govern your chances of getting some filthy lucre are as follows:

 

• The location of the project – projects must be located in an Assisted Area – so as Arun’s classed as an AA and, as a business here, you’re over this hurdle already
• The need for financial support – projects must require financial support in order to go ahead.  The chances are if you’re looking for grant funding, you need the money to make something happen, so all you need to do is demonstrate how much you need the cash
• Whether you have made any prior commitments – no binding financial commitment to the project should already be in place; if there is, then you might find it difficult to demonstrate that, without SFIE, all of your plans are just so much hot air
• Eligibility of investment – project must involve capital expenditure on fixed assets such as property, plant and machinery
• The type of jobs created or safeguarded – if you want more than £100,000, you must show that your project will create new jobs or safeguard existing employment
• Viability of your proposed project – the project should be viable and assist the business in becoming more competitive and profitable
• Quality of project – support will focus on high quality, innovative, knowledge based projects that provide skilled jobs.
• Regional and national benefits – projects should contribute to the regional and national economy and it is up to you to prove this!
• So long as you can satisfy the above criteria, you’re ready to progress to the next stage of actually filling in an application form -  and the good news is that it’s only three and a bit pages long.  Once the form is complete, you’ll have to send it back to SEEDA who should be able to give you an answer in around 30 days.

SFIE certainly looks like a good prospect for SMEs located in this part of the SE, especially as Arun is an AA.  The new SME definition (as ratified throughout the EU) should clear up any confusions and increase the eligibility of grant opportunities for SMEs.  This is your chance to get your hands on a pot of money dedicated to helping your business grow further. 

For additional information, check out www.seeda.co.uk and look under their ‘Funding and Advice’ section. 

The invention of new acronyms probably won’t increase your chances of success in your application, but it could be worth a shot anyway…

If you do look into this, hit hurdles or maybe you’re even successful – let us know as there’s every chance that others can learn from what you’ve done.