u/ILikeLime

Hey there!

I’ve had a weird career trajectory that has recently landed me in the position of helping small businesses (mostly hospitality) apply for private grants and city incentive programs (think Comcast RISE, Fed Ex Amplify, Barclay’s Small Business Big Wins, etc). I’ve been lucky to have pretty good success in that area.

I now have a business that wants to apply to a PA state grant program. I’m excited to dip my toes in government grants, but I’m a little overwhelmed by the level of granularity needed and adjusting our narrative to fit state government priorities.

Would anyone who has experience in government grants for private businesses be willing to chat with me and answer a few questions? Just want to gut check a few things to make sure I’m on the right track.

Thanks!

We already have been having sleep issues (see previous post), but this is a little different. Son is 2.5 (32 months)

On vacation at a beach town for 8 nights, we’re on night 5. New environment, exciting days, etc, mean he’s not getting enough sleep. We’re lucky if he gets 10 hours overnight, and during the day he’s napping like 30-45 minutes. Normally he’s good without a nap, but we’ve been forcing a nap via car ride because his nights are so short and he’s getting so wired and crazy during the day from being so tired. Despite these forced naps, bedtime is so bad - taking 2 hours+ to fall asleep. He won’t allow us to leave him to fall asleep on his own like he does at home, so we’re stuck actively trying to get him to lay down, pat his back, sing, etc until he passes out from exhaustion. Despite going to bed way later than we’re aiming for, he’s still waking up super early, like after 9-9.5 hours. If he would just sleep in a little more we’d be ok but it’s just not happening. But when we’re forcing a nap, it seems like he’s going to bed even later. So it feels like my options are let him take a longggg nap so he can catch up on some sleep (but then he’ll be up even later and potentially getting an even shorter night) OR skip the nap so he’s ready to crash for an early bedtime (but then he’s going to be even more wired and moody and it might make the problem worse). Any ideas on how to break this cycle or are we just in it until we get home? We’ve still got until Monday. It’s awful to see him so overtired and wired.

For reference at home he sleeps overnight about 10.5 hours on nap days (1-2 hours at daycare, 4 days a week) and 12-12.5 hours on no nap days (3 days a week)

I think this is just a vent post, but I need to get this off my chest.

My husband and I decided we were ready to start trying for baby #2 in May, when my son turned 2.5. However, this also coincided with him reaching peak toddler behavior - testing boundaries, daily tantrums, anger at being told no, starting to drop nap/sleep troubles, demanding the things he wants, etc etc. We are EXHAUSTED. And so worn down emotionally. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried this week. Not because I think something is wrong with my son, but I just am having such a hard between exhaustion, guilt, trying to respond calmly and firmly, regulating myself and trying to model that… I just feel like I’m not cut out for this phase and it’s tearing me up. But anyway that’s not exactly what I’m here to discuss. For many reasons we feel like now is the right time to get pregnant. But we just can’t do it. After a long day of being (metaphorically) beat up by my kid, we just don’t have it in us to be like “great now let’s make another”. I’m ovulating now and we just can’t bring ourselves to do it, for the second month in a row. I don’t think waiting is going to be all that helpful because we’re just going to have the same problem next month, kicking the can down the road if you will, but we just can’t make ourselves do the deed when we’re physically too tired to do it anyway, it doesn’t feel good or exciting, and it may result in making life even harder right now.

I don’t know what I’m looking for here. Thoughts, I guess?

Happy to be a part of this knowledgeable group!

I started writing grants when the small business I was working for roped me into doing a few applications. After quite a few successful awards, some other small business friends asked me to help with their applications. I now find myself as an accidental grant writer of sorts, and have started a super small LLC doing grants for other small, for-profit businesses. As I build this thing over the past two and a half years, I’m wondering what I would need to do to extend this work to small nonprofits. I’ve spoken with two local nonprofits who are looking for assistance, but I’m afraid to offer services if it’s a totally different beast. For instance, even going about finding nonprofit grants is probably very different than what I’m currently doing.

I’m curious if anyone can lend some advice on bridging the gap between for-profit and non-profit grant writing. I’d be happy to hear it!