The Business Grant Scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam

Keyword: Business Grants

Grant scams are nothing new. For decades scam artists have been promising that you can finance your business -- and they ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE that you will get a grant.

Well -- surprise surprise! -- there are no guarantees. But the hawkers keep hawking.

Economic Stimulus Grants

The recent Economic Stimulus package signed by President Obama has created a whole new class of scam sites offering information on stimulus grants for individuals and small businesses. These sites are particularly preying on small business owners who are struggling to stay in business and in search for money to keep them afloat.

As tempting as it may be to explore these programs offering free stimulus money, you will be wasting your money by signing up with one of these websites. There is no money in the stimulus package for sending individual checks to small business owners.

And contrary to what you may read, the government does not secretly give away excess budget money to individuals in the form of grants. There is no secret door with free money behind it.

Scam Sites about Scam Sites

So, the scammers have figured out people are on to them. They are now setting up websites that discuss government grant scam sites, and promote a list of websites that claim to provide legitimate grant information. Many of these sites are just fronts for scam sites.

Grant Information is Free

Government agencies publish grant information on the web, and make it accessible for free. You do not need to pay anyone to access grant information. Grant information is accessible by visiting agency websites, searching on your favorite web search engine, or using one of these databases:

• Business.gov's Loans and Grants Search Engine provides legitimate small business loans and grant programs (when available) for which you might qualify. Currently, this tool contains mostly loan programs, but we are continuously updating it, and will add relevant grant programs as we identify them.

• Grants.gov is database of federal grants, most of which are available to non-profits, cooperatives, other government agencies, and academic institutions. Grants.gov is the one-stop resource for finding grants offered by federal agencies. Some grant programs do allow eligible for-profit entities to compete for grant money, however, these are highly specialized programs, such as specialty crop research. However, you won't find small business grants for starting a business, paying off debt or otherwise help for running your business.

For several years we have recommended that you do your own legwork in tracking down business grants, and be creative. Don't go looking for a handout. Look for a job that needs to be done that happens to have grant money associated with it. There really are thousands of places for you to search, even sticking with the legit databases.