I understand the question. I have submitted proposals myself and I support entrepreneurs in pursuing every legitimate avenue for financial support. But I also have to tell the truth about what I have observed in over a decade of working directly with small businesses in this country
While you are writing proposals for grants that may or may not materialise, you are not building the systems that would make your business sustainable regardless of external support. You are not clarifying your positioning so that your ideal clients can find you and buy from you consistently. You are not developing the leadership capacity to operate as a CEO rather than a solo service provider doing everything herself.
The funding myth is expensive not because it leads you toward the wrong source of capital, but because it delays the development of the actual business infrastructure that would make capital, when it arrives, compound into something sustainable.
Small businesses do not have a funding problem. They have a system, marketing, leadership, and positioning problem.
The SMME owners I have watched thrive over time share a specific set of characteristics. They know their numbers. They have at least one clearly positioned, well-priced offer that the market understands. They have a simple but consistent marketing and sales process that does not depend on them being inspired every day to execute it. And they have invested in their own development as leaders. These disciplines are available to every entrepreneur who is willing to do the work of building the business before chasing the funding.