BC Government Launch Online Grant Program

Early in February the BC Government announced their Launch Online grant program where small to medium sized businesses in British Columbia can receive up to 75% of eligible expenses, up to a maximum of $7,500 to create an online store and to advertise it. There is $12 million available on a first-come first-served basis. Sounds amazing doesn’t it? Find out if your business qualifies, what is covered and how we at Meaningful Marketing can help.

Is your business eligible?

Applicants must meet all of the following general eligibility criteria:

The business is owned by a B.C. resident or residents;
The business’s sole or primary operations are located in B.C.
The business:
- Is currently operating;
- Is registered in B.C.;
- Employs less than 149 B.C. residents;
- Pays taxes in B.C.
- Maintains a
  - Business number
  - GST number
  - PST and WorkSafeBC number (where applicable)
Generated sales of more than $30,000 in the past year (in 2019, or in the year preceding the application)
Has repeatable products (goods), or in the case of artists and jewellers, individual items that have slight differences (i.e. paintings or rings)
Does not currently have an online store or has an online store that has no more than three of the five identified online store features
- Customer registration and information security features
- Shopping cart and order management capabilities
- Payment processing options including application of appropriate taxes and shipping costs at time of ordering
- Product catalogue, search and inventory status
- Website analytics and reporting capabilities

What expenses are covered?

Funding will help cover up to 75% of costs for expenses such as:

Service provider costs:
- Platform and website development
- Copy and online content writing
- Developing an online inventory of goods and products
- Pictures (including hiring a photographer), stock photos or related graphics needed
Digital customer costs:
- E-commerce platform subscription (up to 1 year)
- Online advertising (up to 1 year)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Creating banners and other embedded advertising
Staff training to manage the online shop, learn about digital marketing, etc.

Successful applicants must use one or more B.C.-based service provider(s) to build or improve their online store. The only non-B.C.-based eligible expenses include:

Platform subscription costs
Purchase of online photos and graphics
Purchase of online promotional space such as Facebook ads

Mandatory features of your online shop

At the end of the 12-weeks your online shop will need to have:

Customer registration and information security features
Shopping cart and order management capabilities
Payment processing options including taxes and shipping costs at time of ordering
Product catalogue, search and inventory status
Website analytics and reporting capabilities

How we can help

Like many of you, our business has suffered due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Our owner Jordan Caron is born and raised on Vancouver Island and currently living in Victoria where he has called home for 20 years. This is an amazing opportunity afford by the BC Government for businesses to get online and increase their presence and drive traffic to their online stores. It’s also an amazing opportunity for us to showcase our web development and online marketing skills.

We can help with:

E-commerce website development on Shopify and WordPress through Woocommerce
Developing an online inventory of goods and products
Online advertising (up to 1 year)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Creating banners and other embedded advertising
Staff training to manage the online shop, learn about digital marketing, etc through our SEO consulting