What Winning WomensNet Grant Applications Have in Common

January 1st 2025

If you’ve taken any time to look at the caliber of WomensNet grant winners, you know they’re impressive.

The monthly Start-Up, Business-Specific, and Amber Grant award winners all run businesses that meet a market need and demonstrate skill, perseverance, innovation, and dedication.

If that sounds like you, you’re on the right path to being seriously considered for a grant.

Within the WomensNet Facebook community, we often receive questions about how winners are chosen, why one entrepreneur is selected over another, and what applicants can do to improve their odds of success.

So, here are some tips on what many winning applicants have in common:

These attributes are not necessarily requirements, but they signal to the advisory board that if given funds, the entrepreneur has a solid plan to use that money wisely to start or grow her business.

That’s a core question: How will grant money help you grow your business?

If you’re looking for money to repay a large loan, catch up on months of back rent, or otherwise “save” your business, applying is not the best use of your time or money.

Grants are generally not given to companies struggling to survive unless the difficulties are related to a larger issue, such as a pandemic, for example.

However, if your business growth is limited by something you lack but can control — such as equipment, space, raw materials, or personnel — a grant might be able to fill the gap.

What We Look For

These are some things our advisors look for when evaluating applications:

1. Share a clear vision for your business

We love to see companies created out of a passion or skill, to leverage the entrepreneur’s talents, interests, or experience.

Make it clear what your business is offering, why it’s important to you, and the market you’ve identified as needing or wanting what you’re providing. Quantify that market as best as you can.

Businesses that exist “to empower other women” or to serve the local community aren’t providing a specific enough reason for their existence, nor a path to profitability. The vision for what the business is selling is unclear in these instances and are, for that reason, not as strong as it could be.

2. Tell us why people want your product or service

Within the application, we want to see that the entrepreneur has a fair idea there is demand for their product or service. This can consist of market research results if the business is not yet up-and-running or it could be historical revenue data the business owner shares to show rising sales.

We’ll even accept anecdotal evidence. We get a lot of “I took my product to a local market, and it sold out in one day” type of stories in winning applications.  Anything you can show in support of that, of course, would be a welcome addition.

3. Must have a motivated business owner

Although this is more nuanced, our advisory board is also looking for indications that you’re more than capable of running a successful business. To support this, you could talk about your track record of success thus far within the business or in previous businesses you’ve been involved with.

But also tell us why the business is special to you. Was it inspired by a family member? Is it the result of your love for the product or a discovery you made on your own? What’s behind your excitement for your business and your commitment to its success?

4. What do you plan to do with the grant money if you win?

Applicants who can provide clear explanations regarding how they would use the grant funding — including dollar amounts or ranges — are on the right track. State the planned use and the total cost.

Some applicants note their plan to use the funds for X, such as a new piece of equipment, for example.

But if the grant won’t cover the majority of that expense, you need to make clear how you’ll make up the difference. Asking for $10,000 to use toward a $70,000 machine, for example, when you don’t yet have the remaining $60,000 is a hard sell.

Conversely, if the grant will more than cover your primary investment, also disclose how you’ll spend what is left over. For example, if you want $3,000 to print up another run of profitable workbooks or planners, what will you do with the remaining $7,000? Tell us.

4. Reapply when…

Another question we hear repeatedly has to do with reapplying for a WomensNet grant.

Your best bet is to apply again when something has significantly changed for the positive with your business.

In fact, we typically don’t allow women entrepreneurs to apply more than once a quarter because we want to see progress. A positive significant change might include a big customer contract that you could use help fulfilling, a dramatic increase in ongoing revenue due to a new initiative, or an award won that is driving more traffic to your website, as examples.

As the FAQs on the website explains, “We’re looking for qualities like passion, business savvy, and vision. Women who believe in what they’re doing tend to make us believers, too.”