Get up to £5,000 grant funding to improve design in your business!

Our lovely friends at Scottish Enterprise are offering businesses grants between £2,000 to £5,000 to help businesses design new products, brand or rebrand their business or products, and design and develop websites amongst other things (essentially all of the lovely things we do).

This is being offered through Scottish Enterprise’s ‘By Design’ grant. This grant is ideal for any VAT registered business that wants to launch and market a new product. You don’t have to have an established business as new businesses, not yet trading, can apply as well.

There are a few qualifying criteria for the grant which include:

Who can apply?

• VAT registered companies in Scotland (except Highlands and Islands) looking to develop new products or services
• You must be able to contribute at least 25% of the cost
• You must be able to fund the project up front
• You must be able to demonstrate the benefits of the project
• While you don’t have to be trading, you do have to be VAT registered, and be able to describe how the grant will help take your product or service to market
• If you’re a social enterprise company, you can still apply as long as you are trading and VAT registered.

What can you use it for?

• Design a new product or service or improve the design of existing products or services
• Hire a designer to help improve your business processes
• Updated branding and packaging as part of a larger innovation project, however this must not make up the whole of the project
• External research providing information on customer needs and wants
• Hire an expert to help write a design brief or prepare a design blueprint
• Develop a more user-friendly approach to new product development
• Hire an expert to help your business use design more effectively
• Expert advice and feasibility studies
• Designing and developing a website, as long as the website is part of a project and the costs don’t make up more than 10% of the grant amount.

If you would like to find out more either have a look at the Scottish Enterprise website or click here to chat to us about how you would use the £5,000 on offer!