Who is eligible for the Trading Online Voucher (TOV)? 

So you are probably wondering if you are eligible for the Trading Online Voucher. As with all things there is certain criteria that must be met in order to qualify for the TOV. The grant is primarily for small businesses looking to improve their online presence. If you have not heard of this scheme we wrote a short blog post about it. Click here to read it.

Thankfully the application process is not as difficult as one might think and the requirements can quite easily be met. The first qualifying factor is that any business that wishes to apply for the grant must be at least 6 months in business. The business will be asked to provide evidence of this. If the business has not been trading for this length of time unfortunately they will not receive the grant. Don’t be dismayed if you are only a new business as six months goes by in the flash of a pan and you can start the research and gathering information for your application so you have a clear idea of what you want. This will make the process so much more efficient when you hit six months in business. You’ll be ready to go with your application and be able to get your new online presence up and running.

The second qualifying factor is that the business must have less than €2,000,000 turnover per annum. Unfortunately, if your company is taking in more than this you will not qualify for the grant. On the bright side if you are able to generate this much turnover your business is most likely doing well and you are doing something right.

As the voucher is aimed towards small businesses, the company should have less than 10 full time staff. However, it is also possible to have 20 part time staff. So as long as the hours of your staff combined together only equates to the hours of 10 full time staff you are still eligible.

While this is not a requirement to be eligible for the grant it is important to know that with the money you receive you will be expected to create or update an e-commerce website in order to receive the money from the LEO. Failure to do so will result in the applicant not being reimbursed. This means it is really important for the applicant to think about whether an e-commerce website would be suitable for their business.

If you have any questions, want to figure out if you are eligible for the grant or need any help filling out your application, do not hesitate to get in contact with one of our team members today.