{"id":242,"date":"2015-04-24T11:12:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T10:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vendexo.com\/blog\/?p=242"},"modified":"2015-04-24T12:18:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T11:18:02","slug":"grants-of-up-to-e2500-available-for-online-trading-digital-strategy-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/grants-of-up-to-e2500-available-for-online-trading-digital-strategy-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Grants of Up to \u20ac2,500 Available For Online Trading &#038; Digital Strategy Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vendexo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/logo_OTV-287x300.jpg\" alt=\"Online Trading Voucher Logo\" width=\"287\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/logo_OTV-287x300.jpg 287w, https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/logo_OTV.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/>If your business is based in Ireland, and you wish to enhance your website with the ability to trade online, take orders, bookings &amp; payments online then your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.localenterprise.ie\" target=\"_blank\">Local Enterprise Office (LEO)<\/a> has announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.localenterprise.ie\/DLR\/Financial-Supports\/Types-of-Funding\/Online-Trading-Vouchers\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Call (May 2015) for applications<\/a>. Check your LEO for the deadline, but the ones we looked at appear to be around mid-May.<\/p>\n<p>This grant seeks to help businesses who do not yet have a website, or whose website is very basic, to develop their websites and put in place a digital strategy. According to LEO, only 23% of small Irish businesses are engaged in any meaningful way in e-Commerce sales. Furthermore, the Irish people are continuing to increase their online spending, but an estimated 70% of this spend is with overseas businesses. The funding for this scheme is coming from the Department of Communications, Energy &amp; Natural Resources, and is administered by the Local Enterprise Offices.<\/p>\n<p>There is a limit of 2,000 on the number of applications which will be approved for 2015.<\/p>\n<h2>Eligibility Criteria<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The vouchers\/grants are up to a maximum value of \u20ac2,500 or 50% of the eligibile expenditure (excluding VAT), whichever is less<\/li>\n<li>Voucher approval must be obtained before incurring any expense<\/li>\n<li>Own labour is not an eligible expense<\/li>\n<li>Only third party costs will be considered<\/li>\n<li>All third party\/supplier invoices must contain proper business details, e.g. Tax\/VAT registration number, business registration details etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Eligible Businesses<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The business must have no or a very basic\/limited online trading presence prior to application<\/li>\n<li>The business must have less than 10 employees<\/li>\n<li>Turnover less than \u20ac2 million\n<\/li>\n<li>Business must be registered and trading for at least 12 months<\/li>\n<li>Must be located within one of the LEO areas covered by the scheme<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ineligible Businesses\/Projects<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Companies with a charitable status, semi-states, not-for-profit organisations, trade associations etc.<\/li>\n<li>Professional service businesses specialising in IT who are already capable of online trading<\/li>\n<li>Conferences and seminars<\/li>\n<li>Projects which are contrary to or conflict with public policy<\/li>\n<li>Duplication of support for projects which would be eligible for assistance from other State Agencies of EU funded Operational Programmes<\/li>\n<li>Projects which are deemed capable of proceeding without scheme assistance<\/li>\n<li>Projects essentially comprising importation and distribution<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Online Trading Vouchers Can Be Used For<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>IT Consultancy expenses<\/li>\n<li>Development or upgrade of an e-commerce website<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of <a href=\"\/oss\/main\/\">online payments<\/a> or <a href=\"\/ebs\/main\/\">booking systems<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Purchase of Internet-related software<\/li>\n<li>Purchase of online advertising (this cannot exceed 30% of the approved voucher costs)<\/li>\n<li>Development of an app, or multiplatform web pages<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of a digital marketing strategy, i.e. social media marketing<\/li>\n<li>Consultation with ICT experts or early stage adopters of online strategy<\/li>\n<li>Training\/skills development specifically for establishing and managing online trading activity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Online Trading Vouchers Cannot Be Used For<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Development of brochure websites, that is, websites which are informational only, with no online trading functionality<\/li>\n<li>Purchasing non-Internet-related software<\/li>\n<li>Spending on anything other than a product or service directly related to the implementation or management of online trading<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you wish to trade online, improve your e-commerce capability, accept online bookings\/sell tickets online then Vendexo can help. <a href=\"\/main\/contactUs\/\">Contact us<\/a> today about taking advantage of this Online Trading Voucher Scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your business is based in Ireland, and you wish to enhance your website with the ability to trade online, take orders, bookings &amp; payments online then your Local Enterprise Office (LEO) has announced a New Call (May 2015) for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/grants-of-up-to-e2500-available-for-online-trading-digital-strategy-development\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vendexo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}