January - Ice Cream Detroit - 2nd Avenue

As a small business owner, microentrepreneur, freelancer, or in between, the idea of grants can be enticing. Someone giving you money to help make you more successful? Who wouldn't want to apply, right? But the truth is, coming from a grant writer, the process can be brutal. It can be exhausting and frustrating, and sometimes, you may feel like you're writing into the void. The grant world is very competitive and its equally about getting to know people as much as it is about your application and narrative. Most people don't know where to start and end up quitting before they get their first win, I certainly have felt like giving up. Then there's the other side. If you're an experienced grant writer, you'll constantly get questions about your success rate, your fees being too low or too high, and if you're doing this as a part of your 9-to-5 life, it can really be exhausting. I write all of this to say, getting grants is a possibility, you just have to work for it, and that work may look like more than just applying and closing your eyes. 

Every year I say I'm going to blog at least once a month, and does it happen? Of course not. Even worse. I didn't even blog once last year. I had a draft but it got lost somewhere in the shuffle of my everyday life. In my defense, last year was a lot. My dad passed and honestly it really just felt like a blur after. Birthdays, holidays, all of it. But this year, I'm going to take this task seriously. So, here we go.