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Top 5 Reasons Why Applications Aren’t Successful

We want each applicant to submit the best application they can in our COVID-19 Banyule Business Grants. 

We have documented the five most common reasons why people and unsuccessful and suggestions to improve your chances of success. 

1. Applicant fails to contact the Economic Development Team to discuss their project idea.  

This is a requirement of each grant and if you have been unsuccessful applicant in a previous round you are still required to contact the Economic Development Team to discuss your project prior to submitting your Round 7 application. By contacting the Economic Development Team, we can review your previous application and provide guidance on where you scored lowly and suggest ways to improve your application. Call us today on 9490 4222.

2. The application lacks sufficient detail to demonstrate to the Advisory Panel what you are seeking grant funding for and how it meets the grant criteria.  

Your grant application needs to illustrate to the Panel the assistance your seeking, how it meets the grant criteria and the benefits of funding your application over another business. You need to clearly outline: 

  • What your equipment/services you are seeking the grant funding for and why they are needed 
  • How your project will assist you to respond to the impacts of COVID-19 
  • Your project objectives and how you measure them 

For example, if you are seeking grant funding for SEO services to improve your website’s visibility on search engines: 

Project Objective  Measure of Success 
Increase websites visitation   Website visits will increase by 10% on each month 


Have someone else read your application prior to submitting the application to ensure it is clear on what you 
asking Council funding for and that it is aligns as strongly as possible with the grant criteria. 

3. The applicant does not provide the requested documentation.  

As part of the grant application you MUST provide the below supporting documentation. Failure to provide these documents may result in your application being deemed incomplete and ineligible or scoring lowly with the Panel. 

Grant Type  Required documentation  Hints and suggestions 
All  Evidence that your established business has experienced significant decline in turnover compare to the same three month period in 2019 
  1. Profit and loss statements for a comparable period pre and post COVID 

OR 

  1. BAS statements for a comparable period pre and post COVID  

OR 

  1. Income vs Expenditure report for the period pre and post COVID 
All  Evidence that your new business is financially viable.  Cash flow summary or projection. Information on how to complete a cash flow summary and a free template can be found on the Australian Business website here.  
All Quotes – Reputable quotes are required to evidence the cost of each budgeted item. Quotes must be no older than 6 months old and should include: 

  • Supplier’s business name 
  • Description of item 
  • Costings 

Screen shots from online stores and scanned images from catalogues must include the supplier’s business name. 

Procuring services from suppliers based within Banyule or Melbourne’s North will score highest with the Panel.  

 If you are unable to obtain a required service/product within in Banyule or Melbourne’s north provide an explanation in your application as to why. 

 For further information please refer to the Round 6 Guidelines 

 Check out Rediscover localsite, as well as the Banyule Business socials if you are having difficulty in locating local suppliers. 

Business Support Grant  Project plan detailing: 

  • the major tasks
    including any evaluation or periodic review tasks 
  • the task end date 
  • the responsible person  
  • any additional guidance to explain the task or if it is dependent upon the completion of another task or has dependencies  
The project plan should clearly demonstrate how you will as the project manager, will manage the project. It illustrates to the Panel that you have clearly thought out the project and all elements required to achieve our outcomes. 

Project Plan Template

4.  A budget that doesn’t make sense or does not match supporting quotes.  

Your budget should be itemised and each product or service you are seeking grant funding for must be listed. The Panel should be able to match each budget item to the preferred quote. If your total project budget is greater than the grant amount demonstrate how the shortfall will be funded. An example of a completed budget is below: 

Income   $ Amount  Expenditure  $ Amount 
Banyule Grant  $5,000  Podcast microphones  $600 
Own contribution  $1,500  Website development  $4,500 
    Airpods/headsets  $1,100 
    social media boost posts  $300 
TOTALS  $6,500    $6,500 

If you need to obtain a product or service from an international supplier and the quote is not in AUD you need to state the foreign exchange rate used to calculated your AUD costings.  

5. Applying for services or products that have already been received/completed and paid.  

The grant cannot be used to retrospectively fund the purchase of equipment or services rendered. If your project has already commenced, you will need to demonstrate that you are implementing it in a phases and that the phase for which you are requesting funding support has not commenced, and the suppliers have not been paid for services/equipment requested. 

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