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Looking to secure grant money for small business

Veteran

Dennison Collard Rockport, IL

I am curious if anyone has some good information for grant money applications. i live in an empoverished area of west central Illinois and I heard that helps.

29 March 2017 6 replies Small Business

Answers

Advisor

John Green Cary, NC

$5k is not alot of money. You could get an additional summer time job and earn that in three months time. By september, you'd be sitting pretty with your new Infrared.

Look at the Yamaha R-Max RPV. They use 2,600 of those little guys to treat farmland in Japan (2.4 million acres).

On Youtube and Google, search Yamaha R-Max.

If you had one of those, or the equivalent you build yourself, you could treat farmland for pests. The R-Max has a useful load of 5 US gallons of pesticide (35 pounds of cargo). It uses a proprietary control system called YACS with a 250 cc engine.

How much could you earn per acre treating crops for pests ?

Veteran

Dennison Collard Rockport, IL

http://www.flir.com/suas/vuepror/

Sorry I forgot to provide the link or proofread my reply.

Also, thank you for taking the time to reply to me.

Veteran

Dennison Collard Rockport, IL

This is what I will need in terms of resolution, weight, and functionality. I know I can get them cheaper, but for the applications I have in mind I need as high of resolution as possible with a decent fov. Most importantly, I need the radiometric functionality and relatively low weight of the vue pro-r.

Anyways, thanks for the reference and advice. I have been told to fill out a business plan by dozens of people, but I have always been the type of person to keep everything in my head. I am getting a bit overwhelmed now, but I see a light.

I have made all the foreseeable investments besides the camera, business licensing expenses, and liability insurance (possibly more similar expenses). I was hoping that since I am in a very rural area that has limited capabilities due to volunteer fire and rescue personnel and sparsely populated areas to be policed by a few individuals, I could get a grant to purchase the imaging device and use it to help them if needed.

I will write a business plan. Where would I apply for grants related to what I'm doing or for veterans?

Advisor

John Green Cary, NC

A business plan will help you organize your efforts into a realistic timeline and provide the evidence that people need to see in order to loan you money.

Here is a reference : https://www.score.org/business-plan-resources

In the plan, you will describe who your target market is, how many transactions you expect to generate over a particular period of time, and when you expect to have your cash income exceed your cash outgo.

Requesting a grant will require you to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of the effort you are under-taking. A business plan will support your argument that what you are doing is worthwhile.

Having your plan vetted means that a recognized subject matter expert in your area of expertise can support the various assumptions and statements made in your plan. For example, you can have an official from an emergency management agency write an endorsement of your plan.

Thermal cameras are not as expensive as that. Some are $200, some are $500, and some are $2k. http://www.flir.com/Thermal-Imagers/Buyers-Guide

Veteran

Dennison Collard Rockport, IL

I do not have a written business plan no, and what do you mean by vetted? Having someone check it out?

I have a degree in GIS and Remote Sensing and have been building UAVs on the side in preparation for collecting aerial imagery. This area is predominantly agricultural and I am going to be using my aircraft to collect visual, multispectral, and hopefully thermal imagery for consultation purposes. There are an infinite number of possibilities but I am somewhat focused on a few. I have already invested a significant amount of money which is all I can do at this point, but the last thing I need is a thermal imager. They are around $5,000; not only would I be able to use this for my business, I could offer search and rescue services to local emergency personell.

Advisor

John Green Cary, NC

Hi Dennison,

Do you have a well-written business plan that is fully vetted ? If you received a grant, how would you spend the money granted ?

What is the nature of your business? Are there any good jobs in Rockport ?

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