We were preoccupied with the project’s proceedings after our first application was approved. As the first project concluded, we had to hurry in dealing with all the documents and receipts for a whole year for the final audit and report preparation, which was haphazard and time consuming. Some invoices were lost, which made it impossible for us to obtain the full funding. We have also forgotten to obtain a second quotation for a plane ticket as required by the procurement procedure, and the flight cost for that trip could not be reimbursed even when we had the invoice.
Small enterprises like us are usually not well staffed, and may easily neglect the importance of processing quotations or receipts. You should not think that your project will go well simply after your application is successful. The procurement procedure or organisation work of documentary proof are not to be taken lightly. If you fail to sort out the documents in time or clarify the procurement procedures, not only will you create unexpected delays in receiving funds, your next project may also have to be deferred.

We have budgeted multiple visits to Malaysia to organise promotional activities there, but we were making less trips than we had planned in our application. As a start-up, we always save up as much as we could, so it is reasonable to squeeze multiple promotional activities into the same itinerary, saving money and increasing efficiency. What we did not consider was that this discrepancy would be regarded as inability to implement the project fully. Not only could we reimburse less of our travel expenses, the budgeting caps for other parts of the budget had also been reduced proportionately because the total amount spent was reduced.

When planning, it is best to identify which project measures have a chance of not being able to be 100% implemented as planned. When formulating the budget, do not leave too much buffer for these expenditures, lest the gap with the plan is too large, which will affect the larger picture and adversely affect the amount of funding you can obtain at the end.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 had prevented us from holding briefing sessions and participating in promotional activities in Southeast Asia as planned. We reported the situation to the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and tried to propose change requests to the contents of the projects which we failed to implement. After discussion, the HKPC accepted some of the changes. Although we could receive less funding after the change, the balance can still be utilised in our next successful application.

We intended to open relevant positions for the Malaysian market. We can obtain funding from the BUD Fund for hiring additional staff, but the prerequisite is that the expenses must be incurred after the application is submitted. Therefore we started the recruitment process after the application was officially submitted. In the end, we managed to obtain the corresponding funding.