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februari 2020

What is WBSO Subsidy and who can get it?

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WBSO: Save money on hiring developers with government support

Creation of a valuable business requires a lot of effort and money. Especially, if you are interested in team of professionals in the fields of technology or engineering. However, it is nice to remember that the Dutch government actively supports local enterprises with grants like the WBSO subsidy.

What exactly is the WBSO subsidy?

The WBSO stands for the “Research and Development tax credit”. This subsidy helps companies to reduce wage tax, national insurance contributions and other costs of the innovation projects. The grant is provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy to entrepreneurs who plan to invest in research and development.

For whom is the WBSO?

The WBSO subsidy is intended for the companies registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and who hire researchers for R&D projects. To be able to apply for the WBSO a company should meet several requirements:

  • It should experience new technological development accompanied by technological problems
  • the R&D activities should not be started yet
  • the R&D activities should be organized inside the company

More information about the official conditions of eligibility can be found on the website of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. However, it is also possible to scan your profile on our website and get an immediate advice from the specialists.

Why do you need the WBSO subsidy?

The WBSO grant can help entrepreneurs with the technical aspects of production and development. A company can apply for the WBSO if it manages the majority of the technical solutions itself or it wants to test the prototype. Therefore, the WBSO subsidy is suitable for every type of company.  However, it is most widely used among enterprises in the IT sector or manufacturing industry. The subsidy gives benefits of reduced wage taxes or other R&D expenditures (including costs incurred for machine hours or prototypes). The grant is especially valuable for startups.

What is happening after the grant is received?

In addition to maintaining an hour administration, you should be able to provide information about the WBSO costs incurred. You have to report once a year how many hours and costs you have incurred in total and which employees have worked on the projects.

Apply for the WBSO subsidy! It is a good opportunity for your business to grow. Although, if you are not sure about the necessary application steps and need help you can get in touch with us and we will guide you through the whole process. 

What is Research & Development activities for the WBSO?

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R&D activities differ from organization to organization. Although these activities are generally of high risk and uncertain amount of investment, they are crucial for the product development and expansion of market shares.  The companies in the Netherlands have a chance to apply for subsidies and government grants to cover the R&D expenditures, however, these activities have to be qualified.

Generally, R&D activities that can qualify for the tax credit fall in one of these four categories: 

1. New product development 

2. New process development 

3. Incremental product development 

4. Incremental process development 

 Terms like “new” and “incremental” refer to the individual enterprise, but not to the whole industry. 

Examples of qualified activities include:

  • Design and development of new products/manufacturing process 
  • Product experimentation and modification 
  • Research of new applications for existing products;
  • Testing for conformity with domestic/foreign regulation standards
  • Improvement of a prototype of new products 
  • Work automatization 
  • Improvement of manufacturing/production technologies
  • Software development 

Activities are unlikely to be considered as R&D and therefore cannot be qualified for a tax credit if they relate to the general expenditures that a company would undertake without R&D. 

Examples include:

  • Testing or analysis of activities for quality control 
  • Routine data collection
  • Testing and qualification of production lines;
  • Production modifications without technical uncertainty
  • Market research for advertising or promotions;
  • Research that is funded by a third party
  • Any other activities that do not fall into four mentioned categories 

Certainly, rules and conditions for R&D regulations can differ depending on the country, region and industry, hence a company can require external help to make the right conclusions. You can get in touch with us or use the WBSO scan to be sure that your company and activities are eligible for a tax credit. 

Growth hacking tips for startups and scale-ups

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1. Experiments is everything

It is often hard to be right if you are working online. Gut feelings of the marketers usually appear to be wrong, so only data and numbers can help to prove the assumptions. Thus, it is wise for companies to spend time and resources on experiments’ conduction. In a controlling experiment setting, it is their main and the only target to study consumer behavior and find the best method of revenue maximization through the acquirement of new customers.

2. Tracking is important.

Tracking is crucial for business growth. However, it is important to track metrics that can actually help with new partners or customers generation (as engagement rate of social media posts, the website bounce rate, conversion rate) instead of visual performance indicators (as to reach or impressions)

3. Use tools

Growth hacking is based on the usage of handy and modern tools that can help you test all the assumptions in swift time. Surf the Internet to uncover which ones you can use for website creation, automation, social media planning or even persona revealing of the potential leads or customers on LinkedIn.

4. Make it look like human

Automation is a very important part of scaling business, however, people still appreciate human factor and trust business more if they feel a human interaction. Thus, do not be scared to make a mistake or actually aim at making mistakes in your automated messages and emails to create a feeling of human synergy.

5. Catch them in 5

You have only 5 seconds to impress your potential customer on your website or social pages. So make a message about your product vivid and clear. The image and design are not everything, copywriting is extremely important in this catching business. Each copy or caption work towards selling the unique point of your business.

6. Psychographics personas

A buyer persona is a profile of your ideal customer based on real data. However, you cannot get a full understand of your customers with only information about their demographics. It is important to understand things like emotions, values, interests, desires, goals, hobbies, habits and other relevant aspects of their psychological characteristics to understand what and how they want it.  

 

The content comes from the course during one of the Startup Boot events.