Several states have small business government grants. These are not offered by the federal government but a number of state-run development agencies provide free government grants. The states that offer these are Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Utah. Other states provide financing through loans with incentives to those who want to start a small business rather than free government grants.

Instead of money the government will give free advice and training to those who want to make their business grow. The United States Government’s Small Business Administration (SBA) is where the free government grants originate from. Since fifty percent of the labor force comes from the twenty five million small businesses in the United States and that contributes more than half contributes to more than half of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), there isn’t much question why the government is interested in the quandary of the small businessman.

The free government grants come with free counseling, training, and technical assistance. The Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) have full and part time staff that will get help from the private sector to give the business whatever help that they need. This help usually comes in the form of consultants, engineers, and testing laboratories. The grants offered can be found in the Catalog for Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) website http://www.sfda.gov under the “Small Business” and “Small Business Person” beneficiary category. You can browse this free government grants for small business at CFDA free of charge.

The SBA has no funds of its own actually available to supply to small businesses. They depend on the private sector such as banks, credit unions, coops, etc. to provide loans then they guarantee the loans. These loan programs are Loan Guaranty Programs, SBA LowDoc Loans, SBA Express Loans, and Microloan Programs. Targeted Loan Programs are also offered such as defense-delta loans, CAIP loans, Pollution control loans, and Export Express Loans. These loans are meant to target or meet specific needs. Since these places are all ready aware of the SBA you only need to mention SBA for the banks etc. to know immediately what to do.

While free government grants could of course be very useful to any business. The help that a business receives need not be money to be useful. The advice that a business receives can be just as invaluable. The professional service could be worth more than money itself. As the old line says “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.” The success of these businesses can only be beneficial to the government in the long run so the advice given is definitely the best.