meeting with enterprise board

I am the director of a small engineering/fabrication business, been growing the business over the last few years part time, went full time about 10 months ago. We've been trying to approach the local enterprise board for a while now through a local counciller and now have a meeting in the few days.

This is great but the problem is that when we started we had ideas for a few new products/services in engineering sector but with the way things are at the moment, its daily fight for survival and time is spend running the business making traditional engineering products, with little time to developing our new products/ideas etc.

my question is how should I approach the meeting - a general chat about company and sell ourselves as 'individuals with promise' and look for mentoring advice to hone in some of our ideas for products (some are more advanced than others but none in a immeadiately marketable form). Or should I straight out talk about what type of grants would be available?

my feeling is that this is just an opening meeting and not to get two carried away...

Hi Welder,

I'm attaching a link to the Dublin City Enterprise Boards website which details grants etc that are available - these should be common across Enterprise Boards throughout the Country (hope fully this will be of some help in your preparation).

The person you are meeting won't be a bit surprised that you may be looking for either financial or mentoring help, so don't be afraid to have this type of discussion. That's the business they are in ...

Be prepapred to talk about yourself - your business and where you like to take it (and don't feel you have to be projecting massive profits and growth) - but be clear about what's realistic - job creation as part of your growth plans is a critical area (especially in the current times in whcih we live).

Hope that helps ...

Best of luck.

BM


http://www.dceb.ie/financial-assistance/types-of-grants

Thanks for the advice, forgot about job creation! In the current fight for survival it is far from our thoughts at the moment but a critical one when talking to enterprise board!

thanks again