Most years, the Queensland Government and the Australian Government run small business grants that can be put towards a new website, an online store or digital marketing. They are usually reimbursement grants: you pay for the work, lodge the receipts, and get a set amount back. Thousands of Queensland businesses have had websites part-funded this way, and the ones who miss out are nearly always the ones who found out too late.
Where to find what’s open right now
There are only two places you need to check:
- Business Queensland grants lists every state program, including the recurring small business rounds that cover websites and marketing.
- business.gov.au grants and programs finder covers federal programs and lets you filter by state, industry and what you need funding for.
Both pages are maintained by government, so they are always current. Bookmark them, and if a round you’re eligible for isn’t open yet, most let you register for an alert.
What these grants typically fund
The categories move around at the edges, but the same ones appear in nearly every Queensland small business round:
- Building a new website or upgrading an existing one
- Adding an online store or online booking and payments
- Digital marketing: search engine optimisation, Google Ads, social media advertising and content
- Business software and subscriptions, such as accounting, CRM or ecommerce platforms
- Training and advice on using any of the above
What they usually don’t fund is ongoing costs after the project is finished, work that started before the grant was approved, and anything bought from a related party. Read the guidelines for the specific round before you commit to anything.
Who is usually eligible
Eligibility rules are set round by round, but the pattern has been stable for years. A business typically needs to:
- Be a small business, most often under 20 full-time-equivalent employees
- Hold an active ABN and be registered for GST
- Be headquartered in Queensland for state programs, or in Australia for federal ones
- Have been trading for a minimum period, often around a year
- Sit under a turnover threshold, which varies by program
- Not have received the same grant in a previous round
The exact numbers are in each round’s guidelines. If you tick the first three, it’s worth reading the rest.
How grant funding usually works
Most of these programs are matched, reimbursement grants. “Matched” means the grant covers part of the cost and you cover the rest, often half each. “Reimbursement” means you pay the supplier first, then claim the grant amount back once the project is delivered and the paperwork is lodged. Plan the cash flow accordingly: you need to be able to pay for the project before the money arrives.
Timelines are also fixed. There is normally a window to complete the project after approval, so a website that’s going to take four months to build needs a grant that allows four months.
How to put yourself in the best position
This is the part that doesn’t change, and it’s where most applications are won or lost:
- Get a written quote before the round opens. Nearly every application asks for a supplier quote with an itemised scope. Businesses who already have one apply on day one; businesses who don’t spend the first week chasing it.
- Apply early. Popular rounds close when the allocation is exhausted, sometimes within days of opening. “Opens Wednesday” means apply Wednesday.
- Scope the project to what the grant funds. If the round covers websites and digital marketing, keep the quote to those items. Mixing in anything outside the guidelines gives the assessor a reason to knock it back.
- Tie it to a business outcome. Applications that say what the website or campaign will do for the business, such as online sales, bookings or enquiries from a new market, read better than ones that just list deliverables.
- Keep every receipt and invoice. Reimbursement claims are strict about paperwork. Pay the supplier from the business account and keep the trail clean.
- Don’t start the work before approval unless the guidelines say you can. Pre-approval spending is the most common reason a claim is refused.
What we provide for grant applications
If you’re applying for a grant to fund a website, online store or marketing campaign, we’ll prepare an itemised quote in the format the application needs, scoped to the funded categories, with a delivery timeline that fits the program’s completion window. We’ve done this for many Queensland businesses over the years and we know what the assessors want to see. There’s no charge for the quote, and no obligation if the application doesn’t succeed.
Thinking about applying? Request a quote and mention the grant you have in mind, and we’ll make sure the scope and paperwork line up before the round opens.
