• Applicants must have a business or intend to start a business that is located in Argyll & the islands, ie the operating area of Argyll & Islands Enterprise as it was at 1 June 2003.
  
  
• Applicants must be over the upper age limit for assistance from the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT). That means that, currently, applicants must be over the age of 25 at the time of application.
  
  
• The Trust normally assists between 5 and 10 businesses per annum with grants up to £10,000 in value, usually in the region of £5,000.
  
  
• Grants can be given for any legitimate business activity, eg capital development, working capital, training (training costs and loss of earnings while undertaking training), marketing and so forth.
  
  
• Grants from the Trust will be treated by most public sector funders as private input to the project.  Thus the Trust’s funds might be used, for example, as a way of contributing to a capital expenditure project.
  
  
• The Trust awards can supplement but not substitute existing public sector assistance.   
  
  
• Special consideration will be given to innovative and environmental projects and those using and promoting the use of local resources.

Please submit, to the email address below, a business plan that covers the points above in "Selection Criteria". In addition the plan should address all of the following:

• What are the long term business aims and what have you achieved to date?
  
• What financial targets does the business have and over what time frame? Please include budgets and forecasts.
  
• What skills do you and your staff have now and what skills will they need in the future?
  
• What products or services will the business provide?
  
• Who are the customers of the business?
  
• What is the competition and what makes your business different?
  
• What is the trust’s assistance to be used for? Please give details and costs.
  
• Who else is financing the project, eg the bank, the local enterprise company etc, and is it fully secured?
  
• In what way will your business contribute towards the aim of creating additional employment and training opportunities for unemployed people?
  
• In addition, please supply a brief CV (1 page maximum) and latest accounts, where available.
  

Please note that we reserve the right to reject applications which do not cover these points. We try to keep our process as simple as possible and applicants can help us by ensuring all points are covered.

If requested applicants must provide 3 written references to back up their application.

The Trust will meet on a regular basis and applications will be turned round as quickly as possible.

Any decisions made by the Trust will be final and no subsequent correspondence will be entered into.

There will be some ongoing reporting requirements following a successful bid to the Trust, details of which will be given with the letter of offer.

The Trust will report back on annual basis, through a newsletter, to all those who have subscribed to the Trust.