Can I apply for a second Trading Online Voucher?
Upcoming Trading Online Voucher webinar dates:
Leitrim 17 April 2024
Online with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown 13 May 2024
In person in Kinsealy 17 May 2024
Yes, you can apply for a second Trading Online Voucher and the Local Enterprise Offices want you to!
We were invited to a LEO webinar organised by Carlow Local Enterprise Office last week and they have a message that they asked us to pass on...if you have already availed of the Trading Online Voucher, don't forget you can apply for a second one! Hardly any businesses are availing of the second round of funding apparently, and the money is there. We can only assume the same goes for all the LEOs around the country, so you don't have to be based in Carlow to apply.
Here are a few key things for you to know, if you want to apply for a second Trading Online voucher (worth up to €2500):
you don’t have to attend the briefing webinar a second time. Well, this is what Carlow said. I'm told some LEOs request you attend a shorter briefing meeting before your second application.
you don’t have to shop around for three quotes a second time, you are free to say you want to continue to work with the same supplier you worked with the first time around.
you don’t have to be seen to be adding more ecommerce functionalities to an existing ecommerce website.
In your second application you can apply for the funding to cover the following:
positioning strategy
brand photography
new website or website pages
an LMS integration such as a move to Kajabi
digital marketing strategy/launch strategy
content strategy
digital ads
copywriting
digital designs for say social media
social media strategy…the list goes on.
If your intention is to export your products and services, there is also another grant known as TAME (Technical Assistance for Micro Exporters) which can support you if you need to adapt your website for multiple languages or multiple currencies, or if you need a marketing strategy specifically for markets outside Ireland. This match-funding grant is also worth up to €2500 and there’s no reason you couldn’t get this and a Trading Online Voucher (or 2). Also TAME can be applied to portfolio websites, which the TOV funding does not.
No website is ever ‘finished’. Certainly no digital marketing is ever finished, as long as you are in business. The funding is there to help you take your website and your business to the next level.
Could you do with help with any of the above? At Designs For Growth our mission is to take the fear out of using digital to grow your business and to help you market your business in a way that is authentic to you and irresistible to your ideal customer.
If you have been putting your first or second Trading Online Voucher application on the back burner, please get in touch and we can talk about how your business can make the most of this funding.
