Many people across the world have incredible business ideas that would add value to people’s lives. However, access to capital and funding has always been challenging to overcome. Now, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and inventors are turning to crowdfunding to get their ideas off the ground.
What Is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is sourcing capital from a large number of investors. Usually, these investors will receive a reward or incentive.
Although this isn’t a new concept, online platforms, including Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Crowdfunder, and more, have made it more accessible and made it easier for businesses to attract funding on a global scale.
Traditionally, businesses seek large sums of money from one or a small selection of investors to raise capital. In return, these investors usually own a percentage of business shares.
Top Crowdfunding Tips
Unsure how to crowdfund a business? Follow our top tips to overcome the odds and create a successful campaign.
Pick Your Product, Service, or Cause
Most successful crowdfunding campaigns are a specific product. Usually, this is hyper-targeted at a niche market and fills a specific need or gap. To create excitement around your campaign, your product, brand, and story must be unique – if not, you’ll struggle to get investors on board.
Set Your Funding Goal
This is where the numbers come in. As a minimum, your funding goal needs to cover all expenses and enable you to fulfill perks and rewards offered to investors.
Take time to calculate all expected expenses. When you know the total, you’ve got a basic funding goal.
Create Realistic Investment Tiers
Crowdfunding campaigns offer multiple investment tiers, each raising a different amount of capital and offering varying levels of rewards. You need to know your audience and anticipate how much they’d be willing to commit to your project.
You don’t want to price them out of investing. However, you should be wary of setting the bar too low – it means you need to attract more investors.
Choose The Most Appropriate Funding Type
There are three types of crowdfunding:
Equity
Equity crowdfunding gives all investors a small stake in any business they provide funding to. Are you wanting to give partial ownership? If not, check out the next options.
Donation
Here, you’re relying on people’s generosity. If you’re working for a good cause, something for the betterment of others’ lives, or raising funds for charity – this is the best model to choose.
Rewards
Crowdfunders like to back projects with products and services they want to use themselves. Often, receiving a free product or discounted price is enough incentive to encourage investment.
Market Your Campaign
The step most people miss. You need to connect with your target audience.
You can’t create a campaign on a crowdfunding website and hope you’ll be successful. Get out and engage with your audience on social media, create a website, and get people talking about your project.
What Makes a Crowdfunding Campaign Successful?
A successful crowdsourcing campaign has many elements. Think of this process as a business running a marketing campaign, but the purpose of this campaign is brand awareness and conversions.
If you’re still not sure how to crowdfund a business, reach out today, and experts will help you create a fruitful campaign.