Crowdfunding Your Business is one of the ways to grow, introduce a new product, or just add some extra financing to a new venture you want to start.
If you are not familiar with crowdfunding, let me help. According to Wikipedia ….
Crowd funding or crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing, equity crowdfunding,
or hyper funding) describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion picture promotion,free software development, inventions development, scientific research,and civic projects.
Crowdfunding, which is the biggest NEW model for business financing in over 50 years, is gaining momentum in the arts and crafts community. One such business who tried and succeeded with Crowdfunding was Rowan and Charles Hughes of Hughes Pottery in State College, Pennsylvania. According to the Arts Business Institute, ….
A big part of this plan was to become exhibitors at the Buyers Market of American Craft trade show in Philadelphia, and they turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for the project. Having participated by backing other people’s projects, they understood the concept. “I thought Kickstarter would be the perfect platform for the kind of fundraising we wanted to do,” says Rowan, “It’s geared toward creative projects and has the most recognizable brand name in the crowdfunding world.”Take a look at their Kickstarter page, which has an accompanying video and humorous approach to asking for donations to their worthy cause. They were wildly successful, and raised over $9,000.00 for their project even though their original goal was only $5,000.00.
And, of course, the Hughes set up their dream booth at the Buyers Market of American Crafts show (see their Kickstarter website for pictures).
Is crowdfunding a good option for your business? Here are more success stories from others in creative businesses that are using crowdfunding: GoFundMe.
You might also want to check out the top three crowdfunding sites:
- Kickstarter: a funding platform for creative projects– considered the largest crowdfunding site.
- IndieGoGo: an international platform for worldwide exposure
- RocketHub: great for funding creative projects!
NOTE: These are not the only crowdfunding sites, but are considered the top three!
All funding sites are different, but here are eight common elements of all crowdfunding projects:
- Project category
- Project purpose
- Funding goals
- Open funding time period
- Description or pitch
- Video — your story
- Rewards schedule (what you give your contributors)
- Regular project updates (not required by highly recommended)
If you have used crowdfunding in your business, please tell us your experiences!