Where to Find Business Support: KOSGEB, Agencies and Credit Lines
Support programmes are a real resource for small businesses; yet most founders look for them on the day they need money, and that day is usually late. Support runs on a calendar: calls open, windows close.
This guide covers the doors, the application order and the preparation file. To see the chain end to end, keep the complete guide beside you. Note: programme contents and amounts change by period; read the current call text from the official source before applying.
Door 1: KOSGEB
The main address for small and medium enterprises in Türkiye. Entrepreneurship training and new-business supports, business development programmes and machinery-equipment supports are the principal lines.
They share one property: support goes to businesses registered in the KOSGEB database that meet defined conditions. The first move after formation is completing that registration; without it, calls cannot even be tracked.
Door 2: Development Agencies
Regional development agencies open programme calls aligned to each province’s priority sectors — manufacturing, exports, digitalisation, tourism. Amounts can exceed KOSGEB’s, but so do competition and reporting duties.
A critical detail: agency calls follow regional priorities; the same business may be supported in one province and out of scope in another. So the address decision is sometimes a support decision (address guide).
Door 3: Credit and Guarantee Lines
The third door is not a grant but financing: low-interest credit lines for tradespeople, credit guarantee mechanisms and banks’ SME packages. For businesses short on collateral, the guarantee mechanism is often the only door.
The rule holds: credit is a tool for proven demand and a risk for an unproven idea. Trying grant doors before credit lowers the cost of capital.
Door 4: Sectoral and Institutional Programmes
The fourth door is scattered but real: exporters’ associations, chambers of commerce and industry, municipal entrepreneurship centres, university incubators and corporate venture programmes. These often give resources rather than cash: space, mentoring, training, networks.
They can be as valuable as money; in year one especially, mentoring and networks lower the cost of wrong decisions — and for a foreign founder they also shorten the learning curve on local practice.
The Preparation File: What Must Be Ready Before a Call
Applications share one spine: the one-page business plan (customer, problem, offer, price, channel, cost, measurement), formation documents, a simple accountant-approved financial table and, where required, proforma invoices.
That file grows out of the seven boxes in the plan guide. A founder who has written them does not fill the form; they copy into it — and when the window is narrow, that is exactly where the difference shows.
Three Things That Weaken an Application
First, a general-purpose application: describing what you want instead of the priority the call seeks. Second, unmeasured targets: unsupported claims like “we will triple turnover” lower the file’s credibility.
Third and most common, applying late: a file written on the day a call opens cannot compete with one prepared months earlier. Tracking call calendars matters as much as writing the file.
Field Note
A manufacturer applied to the same agency call two years running. In year one the file was prepared ten days before the call and was eliminated; in year two the same business idea was backed by a file prepared three months in advance with settled numbers, and it succeeded. The idea was identical; the preparation time was not. Support goes to those who are ready, not to those who need it.
Quick Summary
Four doors: KOSGEB, development agencies, credit and guarantee lines, sectoral and institutional programmes. Complete database registrations right after formation. The preparation file grows from the one-page plan. Three errors: general-purpose applications, unmeasured targets, late filing. Prepare the file before the call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Yes; many programmes target new entrepreneurs. Conditions vary by programme, so the current call text governs.
Not necessarily; most applications can be made by the founder. Complex, large-budget agency calls are where consultancy helps.
It depends on the support type; some count as income, others work through cost offsetting. Settle the accounting treatment with your accountant.
Next step: Do two things this week: complete the relevant database registrations and convert your one-page plan into application format. For timing, the timing guide is next.