You’ve got plenty of ideas for businesses, and you’ve been ready to get them out there for a while now. Unfortunately, like many people, you have money issues. These money issues are preventing you from reaching your dreams.
Your idea to make the adorable rubber necklaces that every kid aged 7-10 won’t be able to ignore will earn you heaps – you just know it!
But you can’t fashion these necklaces from thin air. So what do you do? Save until you can make them, toss the idea altogether, or perhaps look for a partner to help you?
Well, now you have some help.
With quality programs sprouting all over, funding for your startup is merely a matter of investing the time to go online, boosting your social media presence, then getting your gig up and running on any one of the many emerging “crowdfunding” sites.
If you can convince people that you have a great product, then make it easy for them to invest in your idea, you could be just weeks away from the next big thing.
Regular people like you are doing it everyday. You simply must make a relatively small investment of time (this is far better than the money you don’t have) and create a simple website, if you don’t have one already.
Startups are the new black. Creating yours is a great way to “kickstart” your savings and bolster your checking account. People have great ideas all the time, but until recently, most went unrealized. Don’t let your next best idea be one of those lost to unfunded hopes.
Check out these three ways to crowdsource your next big idea.
Kickstarter
Launched in 2009, over 30,000 projects have been funded and over $350 million has been pledged. If your project is in the area of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater, you can start your Kickstarter campaign.
First, you start a project page, set your funding goal, shoot your video to promote your project, and decide what rewards to offer your backers. Then, you launch your project campaign. Once you reach your funding goals, the people who were cool enough to offer their initial pledge will be charged the amount they promised on their credit card.
If you’re going to launch a Kickstarter campaign, you must have your plan intelligently mapped well ahead of time, and you must share that plan with the people you hope will become your backers. If you can’t follow through with your plan, and your product isn’t produced, you’ll be required to refund 100% of the money.
IndieGoGo
This site offers everyone an opportunity to raise money. Kickstarter puts tighter regulations on the types of projects users can seek funding for, while IndieGoGo advertises that “everyone should be allowed to raise money and now they can.”
The IndieGoGo platform also allows two different kinds of fees, depending on your project’s needs. One option allows you to pay a higher fee, but you keep your earnings. The other option carries a slight 4% fee, but you must refund your backers’ money if your goal isn’t met. If your project doesn’t neatly fit inside the guidelines for Kickstarter, IndieGoGo is a terrific alternative for getting your profit-making idea off the ground.
Wefunder
This site promotes companies and allows investors to find and fund your endeavor. The difference between Kickstarter and Wefunder is that investors (not just unaccredited backers) are the source of your funding and they, in turn, get equity for their funds with company stock. Your company is limited to $1 million annually. If you believe your project is important and will lend to the greater good of the public, backing on Wefunder is easier than if your company is a get-rich quick idea.
It’s easier than ever to get your business off the ground, and with the right funding, there’s no limit to what you can do, or what you can earn for your future.
Have you tried crowdsourcing? What’s been your experience? If you haven’t, what do you think of the idea? Would you use it if you wanted some initial capital to jump start your business?
{ read the comments below or add one }
Since, as a result of having my ID stolen and the ensuing destroyed credit rating, I have been searching for any hope to fund a business, and also a non-profit enterprise, I will be looking into this. Good post.
I built my following for a year, then did a kickstarter and only got money from my dad and my brother. $250! Needless to say, not trying it again.
People who have tried and done successful kickstarters, where are you?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you have to be fairly famous (or get a famous person to do your promo) before your kickstarter/indiegogo will work.
Crowdsourcing is here to stay and it is going to fundamentally change our society, like online buying (and Amazon) is changing retailing. If you look at this macro chart http://bit.ly/smalller you can see how jobs at big employers have been vanishing steadily for a decade. Those jobs are being replaced more and more by self-employment. Crowdfunding couldn’t have arrived on the scene at a better time.
As with any new innovation, there will be mistakes and disasters, but there will also be success stories, stories of people who were not able to get funding from family or banks.
To be successful, though would-be entrepreneurs have to keep two things in mind:
1. You have to be very clear to the backer what they will get in return. “One day when we make money you can say you helped us” doesn’t cut it. They give cash, and they need to know exactly what they get in return.
2. You have to be good at marketing. Selling strangers on your idea requires persuasion skills to tell them why the project will succeed, and how their contribution will enable that success… and give them the aforementioned return.
One of the reasons many aspiring business owners didn’t get funding in the past is they didn’t want to put together that nasty thing called a business plan. Crowdfunding hasn’t changed that. If anything, there’s even more of a premium on a good business plan now than ever.