Small Business Grants in Vermont

Up to half the cost of training, paid to the employer, and no maximum award is published anywhere, so the programme director is the only source for what your project could get. It covers pre employment training, new hire training and incumbent worker training, on site or through an outside provider, and it funds work based learning run with a school. The applicant is an employer with payroll, which rules out a pre revenue founder training themselves.

Up to $30,000 a year at 75 percent reimbursement, and the structure is the thing to plan around. That ceiling spreads across as many as four eligible activities and each one needs its own application, so this is four smaller pieces of paperwork rather than one large grant. Only pre approved expenses are reimbursed. The state publishes no application deadline and no federal award year on the programme page, so confirm the current period with the programme contact before you commit to a trade mission.

Back on this page after being dropped, with the right numbers this time. The range is $2,000 to $7,500 across up to four trade shows in one yearly marketing plan, not the $2,000 to $5,000 we used to publish, reimbursed at 75 percent against a 25 percent cash match. The 2027 request for applications lands on November 20, 2026, applications open December 4 and close at 2pm on January 20, 2027, for shows held between April 2027 and March 2028. You must be a Vermont agricultural or forestry business, registered with the Secretary of State, trading over a year, with three or more wholesale accounts and products at least half Vermont grown. Shows must be business to business and target out of state buyers.

A loan, and the state agency says so in as many words, these are loans, not grants, and must be repaid under standard repayment terms. Vermont put $29 million of its $57.9 million federal SSBCI allocation into loan participation, with the other half funding a separate venture capital programme. Total project financing must sit under $20 million, you must have fewer than 750 employees worldwide, and passive real estate is out, as is stacking with an SBA or USDA guaranteed loan or an SBA 504 for the same purpose. You do not apply to the state authority for it, you approach a participating lender.

Rutland City only, and the timing rule is what disqualifies people. An existing business must apply before the work is substantially complete, and a new business before it starts trading, so an application filed after the fit out is finished is ineligible however good the project. The tier described here pays up to 15 percent of your total investment capped at $5,000. The same programme also runs a $10,000 grant for fixed infrastructure at half the renovation cost, and a secured loan up to $50,000 through a local credit union. Awards sit at the discretion of the redevelopment authority and the Board of Aldermen, and you must be in good standing on city taxes, fees and permits.