There is Portuguese funding for getting your business online. Most people miss it.

If you run a small business in Portugal, there is a reasonable chance that some part of getting it properly online is fundable. Not a discount, not a voucher off a marked-up price — actual co-financing from national and EU-backed programmes aimed at small companies that have not digitised yet.

Most of the owners we speak to either have not heard of it, or heard of it once, assumed it would be a nightmare, and never went back.

What it tends to cover

It varies by programme, but the recurring themes are a website, an online shop, digital marketing, basic cyber-security, and training so somebody in the business can actually run the thing afterwards. Some cover equipment. Very few cover ongoing subscriptions, which is worth knowing before you plan around it.

The bit that catches people out

It is almost never the application. It is the timing. These schemes open in windows, they close, and the money is allocated well before the deadline in a lot of cases. By the time it is common knowledge in your sector, the useful part is often gone.

The second thing is that most require you to have quotes in hand before you apply — so "I'll get funding first and then find a supplier" tends to be the wrong order.

Where to start

We keep a plain-English summary of what is currently open on our funding and grants page, along with who each programme is aimed at. It is not legal or financial advice and we are not consultants — but if you tell us what you are trying to do, we can tell you whether it looks like something a programme would fund, and give you a quote in the format the application will want.

Worst case you find out in ten minutes that it is not for you. Best case somebody else pays for a good chunk of it.