Does the Cost of An Incentives Consultant Outweigh The Benefits? Part I

Is your company embarking on a new business venture (business start-up, expansion or relocation)? Have you considered sharing the cost of your next business venture with the government? Have you considered the amount of effort required to obtain, monitor and report your benchmarks? Consequently, have you considered the associated costs?

                       

Many businesses seek and are approved government incentives or grants to fund a variety of growth projects. Once a business has determined that a project is viable, key staff may be assigned the task of researching and negotiating available incentives or grants in the areas the company is considering.  Some organizations may hire a professional consultant to guide them through the incentive acquisition & negotiations process.  Since many businesses have limited personnel and time constraints, hiring a professional would free their employees to fulfill their ongoing business obligations. Naturally during these low economic times, though, companies may weigh the cost of hiring an Incentives Consultant to the benefits.

To justify the cost of hiring a professional consultant, your company must evaluate if the prospective consultant is experienced and knowledgeable about incentive programs and their associated requirements.  Once your business has established a viable project, your consultant should research available incentives in the areas you are considering. The consultant should be responsible for evaluating the compliance requirements of each available incentive/grant, and determine if your business can possibly meet the proposed benchmarks.  The consultant should be knowledgeable of the overall incentives process and should be able to guide you from application to closeout. 

See the second part of this post, which provides some more details about considering an Incentive Consultants.