Generally speaking I have never viewed grants as a particularly effective way of generating entrepreneurism. Firstly, decisions on awarding a grant are often more political than commercial, secondly, they do not have the desired effect of increasing the number of people to whom the entrepreneur is accountable and thirdly, they do not generate a new source of interested parties who are willing to invest their resources in aiding the entrepreneur’s business.

A grant is appropriate for “projects” that will provide a non-commercial benefit to the community as a whole, but not where there is a commercial benefit to be gained by individual shareholders. I wouldn’t regard the prizes awarded at events such as Les Anges Financier as “grants”;the amount of money is so small (approximately $5K) that it has no material impact whatsoever on the growth of the business. These prizes are much more about PR for the company.

Montreal entrepreneurs are able to take advantage of numerous development grants but it is essential that these grants are seen in context of a companies overall funding scenario:

a) Positive Scenario – an entrepreneur sees a grant as a source of “cheap” money that reduces the overall capital that needs to be raised in establishing their business.

b) Negative Scenario – an (inexperienced) entrepreneur views a grant as as an alternative to a capital raising, or worse, as a validation of the viability of their business.

EVERY decision in a business has a cost and the earlier an entrepreneur realises that the better.