Boost your small business digital strategy with the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP)
In March of 2022, the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) was announced by the federal government. As part of Budget 2021, the $4 billion investment is dedicated to supporting small businesses through access to micro-grants, loans, and a network of professionals ready to support the planning, implementation, and execution of new digital technologies.
This funding was designed to help businesses upgrade or adopt digital technologies, digitize their operations, and leverage e-commerce opportunities to stay competitive and meet their customers’ needs in the digital marketplace.
There are two streams of funding available:
Grow Your Business Online
Grow Your Business Online is aimed at small consumer-facing businesses to help them adopt e-commerce technology and strategies to grow their business online. The adoption of digital technologies enables businesses to serve existing customers more effectively and to attract new customers in the digital marketplace.
Funding Amount
Eligible businesses will receive a micro-grant of up to $2,400 to help with the costs related to adopting digital technologies.
Funding Eligibility
The Grow Your Business Online Grant is offered in British Columbia through Small Business BC and is currently open for applications from businesses that meet all the following criteria:
- Is a for-profit business (including for-profit social enterprises and co-operatives)
- Is a registered or incorporated business
- Is a consumer-facing business
- Can be accessed by consumers or provides in-person services to consumers
- Has at least one employee (other than the business owner) or had at least $30,000 in annual revenue in the most recent tax year (2021)
- Must commit to maintaining a digital adoption strategy for six months after participating in the program
- Agrees to participate in follow-up surveys, share data about the experience, and have its name published as a grant recipient
Eligible Costs/Expenses:
Eligible costs include, but are not limited to the following:
- Costs related to the implementation or improvement of a digital e-commerce plan (e.g. online reservation/booking tools, online ordering systems, electronic payments)
- Costs related to website search optimization (SEO)
- Costs related to the installation of an e-commerce platform (including subscription fees/costs)
- Costs of back-office solutions to support an e-commerce strategy
- Costs of social media advertising (Plan cannot be strictly social media advertising, it needs to tie into overall e-commerce implementation plan)
- Costs related to the creation of customer databases
- Hiring a consultant/agency to execute Digital Marketing initiatives related to your e-commerce store
- Development of new e-commerce website
- Upgrading existing e-commerce site for added functionality (i.e., new plugins, or features)
- E-commerce software including
- Hardware and accompanying software up to 20% of total grant amount
A full list of eligible and ineligible costs can be found on the Government of Canada website.
How do I apply?
Businesses will be directed to their local service providers in their home province or region for details on how to apply for the grant, and your service provider will ensure that your business meets the eligibility requirements.
Boost Your Business Technology
The Boost Your Business Technology grant offers support to Canadian-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who want to adopt new digital technologies. Eligible businesses will have access to grants to pay for digital adoption experts to help them develop a digital adoption plan, and they can then also secure a 0% interest loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to implement the plan.
Funding Amount
The Boost Your Business Technology grant gives you up to $15,000 to get advice and up to $100,000 in interest free loans from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to implement the technologies that can propel your business forward.
You’ll have access to an expert digital advisor who will help you develop a plan tailored to your business needs.
Funding Eligibility
Before applying, businesses are required to meet the following criteria:
- be incorporated federally or provincially, or be a Canadian resident sole proprietor
- be a for-profit, privately owned business
- have between 1 – 499 full time equivalent employees
- have at least $500,000 of annual revenues in one of the previous three tax years
Eligible Costs/Expenses:
Eligible costs include, but are not limited to, the following:
- customer relationship software (CRM)
- digital inventory management systems
- network security software
- artificial intelligence
- machine learning
- robotics
How do I apply?
You will be asked to provide basic information in the initial application and be asked to assess your business’ digital readiness by completing a digital needs assessment.
The digital needs assessment tool will generate a report outlining your company’s digital maturity and compare it to an industry-specific benchmark. You may share this report with your digital advisor later in the process.
Source: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canada-digital-adoption-program/en