Having custom software in your business has many advantages, it can save you money, it can increase efficiency and it can automate tasks leaving you with the ability to resource personnel to manage more proactive tasks within your business. As a custom software development business, we can sometimes encounter many questions or objections in the early phases of negotiations, one of these being, cost!
By definition, if something is custom made or developed, there is an association that is always drawn, that being, it is going to be expensive. Well, yes, something that is custom made is likely to be more expensive than an off the shelf, generic product. However, it is a short-sighted action to fall at the first hurdle and blame the cost for not investing. It is much more productive to view the investment as a long-term project, recognise the return on investment that it will bring and understand how it will contribute and drive growth within your business.
For many businesses, an initial outlay of what could be several thousand pounds could of course prove to be a step too far, especially for start up’s or those that are in the early stages of trading when every expenditure is critical to the success of the business. One of the areas to help businesses navigate those early stages is grants or funding.
There are a multitude of different ways to obtain grants that are available to businesses, including Government backed schemes, local authority programmes, venture capitalist organisations, angel investors and crowd funding websites. Furthermore, Research and Development (R&D) grants are also available. R&D grants are used to help businesses with the commercial development of innovative products, services and processes and collaborate with other organisations and researchers. Grant amounts range from £25,000 to £10 million. They are usually allocated for time-limited projects and cover a proportion of the costs rather than the total amount.
Solweb Ltd has a number of clients across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that have successfully managed to secure funding for new projects over the past few years and then been able to approach us to discuss, plan and develop their custom software ideas for their company. These applications have now been developed and deployed and are integral to our clients’ operations.
By spending a couple of hours researching online to see if your company meets the criteria for a grant or particular funding, this could help to progress or even realise your plan of implementing a custom software project and all the associated benefits and efficiencies that will bring to help grow your business. Time well spent we think.
