Why does the performance report for the Business Restructuring Subsidy take so long!?
For now, new public offerings for the Business Restructuring Subsidy have stopped, but the procedures for past successful applicants to receive their subsidies are still ongoing.
Recently, there was a business operator who took over a year and a half from submitting the performance report to receiving the subsidy. I don't think they expected it to take this long at the beginning. However, if initial preparation is insufficient, the procedure will be prolonged.
A year and a half is certainly too long, but it is common for it to take several months or more.
To prevent this from happening, I will summarize what you need to be careful about.
Overall flow and points of caution
Confirmation of prerequisites
Application (Business Plan) → The barrier of selection
Grant application → The barrier of grant decision
The barrier of change application
The barrier of performance reporting
5-year business status report
I am introducing several barriers, such as these.
Things to do after applying
Recently, it seems the term "selection" is not used, but whether it is "selection of subsidy grant candidates" or "selection," it is the same thing for business operators.
Also, since there is some time between application and selection, you should not let your guard down here and try to advance preparations as much as possible.
Request for estimates
Loan consultation
Property negotiations
and so on.
We know this, but it often gets put off.
And then, you'll be in a panic as soon as you're selected!
Points to note during the implementation period
The documents required for the performance report, or rather,
records of business interactions with external parties
documents showing the movement of money
must all be kept as a prerequisite.
If you store these documents separately or if some are missing,
it will be difficult to receive the subsidy.
Document management is a basic business operation.
If you are not confident, take this opportunity to
think of it as training to improve your foundational skills and get to work!
The wall of performance reporting
There is an application deadline for the performance report.
Completing the procedures by the deadline is of the utmost importance, but
if the submitted documents are incomplete, they will definitely be sent back.
Even after you have managed to meet the deadline for the time being,
it is better to check the required documents very carefully and re-verify that there are no missing items.
If you wait until you are pointed out to prepare the documents, it can easily
take several months.
Everyone is busy with their main business, so
the task of collecting unfamiliar documents tends to be put on the back burner.
An important point is the consistency of the documents.
A common point of criticism in performance reports is
inconsistencies between documents.
Missing required documents (shortage)
Discrepancies in amounts (inclusion of ineligible expenses, dispersion across multiple transactions, etc.)
Discrepancies in descriptions (differences in product names, specifications, etc.)
Card payments, installment payments, etc., are also sources of trouble.
Even if there is only one item of eligible expense, there will be about 10 documents.
If there are 10 items, there will be over 100 documents just for that.
Ensuring consistency across all of them and unifying amounts, notations, etc., is
quite difficult.
And,the documents are everything!
No matter how much you explain verbally, they will not accept it.
You must submit everything in documents!
All documents must be consistent and the contents must match.
A third party must be able to confirm the consistency just by looking at the documents.
They will not overlook even the smallest inconsistency.
Even if there is no problem in practice, if there is a deficiency in the documents,
everything will be sent back.
Therefore,
business operators often get confused when they are bluntly sent back,
thinking it would be fine.
The expectation that they should understand at least this much does not apply.
Some business operators get angry at the ultra-bureaucratic response.
Overcoming the barriers up to adoption and after adoption is
a huge hassle, but the rewards are also great.
If you seriously want to accelerate your business!
As one means of fundraising for that purpose,
if you want to utilize subsidies,
I recommend that you consult with a trusted expert once.
This article was written by
Shigeki Kawahara, a "Future Realization Partner" for increasing revenue pillars
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