Can you get grant money to start a business without buying one of "those" books?

The good news is of course you can.  The bad news is that you will have to find the information yourself.  With the exception of hiring a grant writer or consultant or getting someone to help you for free you will have to hunker down and find the information yourself.  Don't feel bad though because how do you think the books and the others got the information?  They went and looked for it.

As a matter of fact looking for and finding the information yourself will help you keep up with the latest and most current grants.  For example I recently found out that the IRS will be starting a new grant program in the year 2006 for the 2005 tax year.  I have also been able to find out about castles being for sale at a reduced price in Germany.

Many convention grant funding resources don't have ALL the grant funding resources that are currently available.  Did you know that there is a competition for the best business plan using a particular piece of software and of course it is being sponsored by the software company itself.  2004 recipient of that grant started a lingerie boutique!  There is a grant awarded to 5 minority applicants for the best business idea/plan and the grant award is $20,000 and the program itself is annually.  There are also quite a few programs out there where the main requirement is coming up with an endeavor/vision to help community and society as a whole - the largest grant award that I have seen so far is $100,000!  These kinds of programs are from more than one source and while they are not impossible to find they do seem to be quite hard to find - especially the grants relating to starting a business.  That helps you because the less people that know about them the less competition there is for you when you apply.