mythical government business grants for women?

[zazizoma]

Hi, I keep seeing ads on the internet for government grant schemes for women seeking to start businesses. These links all bring me to one of several membership-only grant database sites, and I can't seem to find any such grant schemes through my local business link site. Are these schemes just a myth to lure me into a costly membership, or does ANYONE have concrete experience of their existence?

I think my question has been answered by five days of silence . . .

There's precious little around now Zazizoma, the money all got spent out the public sector pot!

And even when it was available, it involved jumping through so many hoops it wasn't really worth it. For example, you might have had to set up your shop in a particular postcode in order to qualify for regeneration money. Or had to have used a particular supplier for your website. Or gone on a training course for 6 weeks before you could access a pitch-type scenario to try and get some funding. In short, a lot of it was about ticking boxes and creating yet more public sector jobs.

If you really want to start a business, there are lots of ways to do so without going into tons of debt or flogging your soul to an angel investor.

It's just that it's harder than someone handing you a wadge of cash and telling you to get started. Be prepared to work 2 jobs for at least the next six months, planning and preparing your business. Then you'll spend the next 2 years not going on holiday, not having any time off, forsaking TV in place of the laptop.

It is possible to make money working from home but you have to put in triple the effort you would make rather than just picking up a salary. People talk all the time about "lifestyle businesses" or "WAHM jobs which fit round the family". I'm not altogether convinced that those sorts of jobs actually pay the mortgage, as the sheer amount of effort/hours you need to put in as a business owner would cancel out any fringe benefits. You might feel like you were doing at bad job at work and being a mum if you tried to earn an equivalent salary by working just 12 hours a week.

It does depend very much on what you are wanting to do?