The Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) supports projects that help you transform your business, improve market position and sales, apply innovation and automation as well as venture to overseas markets.
The spirit of the grant is to help growing businesses scale their business and is not designed to be a lifeline for a business that is experiencing a downturn or has cashflow issues.
Businesses in need of working capital for business needs can apply for the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme (TBLP) instead.
In this post, we will discuss how to apply for the EDG grant for a marketing and branding project in Singapore.
How the EDG Grant Works in a Nutshell
The EDG grant subsidises a submitted project and works on a reimbursement basis. This means the project has to be completed with all expenses paid out. The audited accounts, documentation and final report with all achieved project deliverables can then be submitted for reimbursement.
The EDG grant funds qualifying project costs that include consultancy fees from certified 3rd party consultants and internal manpower costs.
Typically, companies can receive up to 50% of support for the qualifying project costs.
Strategic Brand and Marketing Development
If you are looking to improve the traditional or digital marketing or branding of your business in Singapore, you can apply for a EDG grant under the “Core Capabilities” pillar – Strategic Brand and Marketing Development.
This “pillar” supports a project that helps your company better capture target audiences and markets by differentiating your brand, and your products and services.
You will need to look for a Singapore management consultant that specialises in marketing or branding consultancy, depending on your requirements. If you are looking for digital marketing or branding in the online space, you will want to look for a consultant with digital marketing expertise and experience as well.
The marketing consultant will assist to scope the project that can cover:
- Diagnosis and Gap Analysis of your Company, Marketing Strategies, Sales Processes and Marketing Tactics
- Competitor Research & Analysis
- Market Research & Analysis
- Crafting of Marketing Strategy
- Crafting of Marketing Plan or Roadmap for Implementation
Evolve & Adapt is a strategy & digital marketing firm that is a certified management consultant. We can help you scope out a project based on your marketing goals and assist with an EDG application.
We also boast a 100% approval rate for EDG applications.
Continue reading this post and then contact us to schedule a discussion to get started.
EXAMPLES OF EDG GRANT MARKETING PROJECTS IN SINGAPORE
Here are some examples of strategic brand and marketing development projects that can be claimed under the Enterprise Development Grant Core Capabilities pillar:
- Developing a Brand Strategy to Increase Market Outreach.
- Developing a Digital Marketing Strategy to Increase Online Brand Presence and Lead Generation.
- Conducting Market Research & Analysis to Identify Competitive Advantages of a Brand and Developing a Positioning Strategy.
- Determining the Feasibility & Viability of Launching a New Product.
- Developing a Marketing and Sales Plan to Improve Profitability.
APPLYING FOR AN ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT GRANT
Here are the steps to take to apply for an Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) for a strategic brand and marketing development project.
Step 1: Ensure Your Company Meets the Basic EDG Eligibility Requirements
To qualify for the EDG Singapore grant, your business must:
- Be registered and operating in Singapore. EDG is open to Sole Proprietors, Limited Liability Partnerships and Pte Ltd companies.
- Have a minimum of 30% local shareholding.
- Have less than 200 employees.
- Have less than SGD100 million annual turnover.
- Be in a financially viable position to start and complete the project. (EDG works on a reimbursement basis and is not an upfront funding grant.)
- Not be a start-up. You should ideally be operating for at least 2 to 3 years.
- Has business activity and preferably growth in the last few years.
- Have plans to contribute to “workers’ outcomes”. i.e. You intend to increase your number of employees*, increase the salary of existing employees or provide training to upgrade existing employees.
*Officially, your business does not need to have a minimum employee headcount. But, businesses with more than one employee are generally preferred unless you can demonstrate projected growth in human resource with the success of the project.
*Applications will be assessed by Enterprise Singapore based on project scope, project outcomes and competency of service provider.
Step 2: Look for a Certified Management Consultant in Marketing
As mentioned above, for a strategic brand & marketing development project, you may engage an Enterprise Singapore-recognised management consultant to consult on the project. This is part of the ESG Consultant Quality Initiative (CQI).
ESG-recognised consultants are individuals who have been approved and recognised by Enterprise Singapore (ESG), under the TR 43: 2015 standards.
This certification provides you with greater assurance in terms of the level of quality and professionalism in the partners they engage. You can read more about CQI here.
Step 3: Prepare the Project Proposal
You will need to prepare the project proposal as part of the EDG application. This is where an experienced and competent management consultant is essential.
The consultant should assist in preparing the proposal and guide you in providing the necessary information to strengthen the proposal. A good consultant will also be familiar with the ESG project template and understand the requirements of the application proposal.
For your reference, the proposal template can be viewed at EDG Project Proposal Template-Core Capabilities.
Step 4: Prepare the Required Supporting Documents
Besides your project proposal, there are also other documents that must be prepared. These include:
- Past Year(s) Financial Statements
- Staff Remuneration
- Depreciation
- Management Consultant Certificate & CV
Once again the certified management consultant will guide you through the process and let you know specific documents you need to prepare.
Step 5: Apply for EDG
Once all the above have been met, your company will be able to apply for the EDG grant at the Business Grants Portal by logging in with your CorpPass.
Follow the guided steps and upload the various documents as instructed.
Approval of the Enterprise Development Grant
Once your application is submitted, it will take between 8 – 12 weeks for your EDG grant application to be processed. Typically, you should get a response from an Enterprise Singapore officer within 4 – 6 weeks.
Sometimes, you will be asked to clarify aspects of your business or the proposal or requested to submit additional documentation.
Working with an experienced management consultant and submitting all the requested documentation in proper order will ensure the application can be processed with little delay.
Applications will be assessed by Enterprise Singapore based on project scope, project outcomes and competency of the marketing consultant.
If/ when your EDG grant application is approved, a project Letter of Offer will be sent to you. This Letter of Offer will contain the amount of grant awarded to your company, along with its conditions of support.
The conditions of support are:
-
- Project Qualifying Period
- Project Deliverables
Do note that you must accept the conditions on this Letter of Offer and acknowledge receiving it or the application will be considered null and invalid.
HOW MUCH IS THE INVESTMENT AND HOW IS COVERED BY EDG?
Typical marketing projects for SMEs range from S$40,000 – S$120,000, depending on the scope and duration of the project.
Most projects last 4 – 6 months, with some large ones lasting a year.
Assuming, a project is budgeted at S$40,000, EDG will up to support S$28,000, which means your investment is S$12,000.
In addition, EDG will also support up to 70% of internal manpower costs for new staff hired during the project period, for the project.
For example, if the new staff who is hire for the project has a salary of S$3,000 per month (based on CPF contributions) and the project is 3 months long, the internal manpower cost will be S$9,000 for the duration of the project.
EDG will potentially cover up to 70% of S$9,000, which is S$6,300.
However, do note, as mentioned above, EDG works on a reimbursement basis. This means you will need to have the cashflow to pay for the project costs first.
The audited accounts, documentation and final report with all achieved project deliverables can then be submitted for reimbursement.
Reimbursement takes about 1 month, assuming there is nothing wrong with your paperwork submission.
That is it! While this post is a long read, I hope that it gives you a comprehensive overview on applying for the EDG grant for your marketing project.
The best advice I can give is for you to talk with a certified management consultant to assess if you have a feasible and viable EDG project.
If you are a SME registered in Malaysia, you can have a look at available equivalent grants from the Malaysian government here.
Evolve & Adapt is a strategy & digital marketing firm that is a certified management consultant. We can help you scope out a project based on your marketing goals and assist with an EDG application.
We also boast a 100% approval rate for EDG applications.
CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO APPLY FOR THE EDG TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS
