Interested in crowdfunding to raise capital for your business? Start by educating yourself on this source of startup capital by signing up with ProHatch’s Online Crowdfunding Incubator Program for Small Businesses. The Online Crowdfunding Incubator provides free information and consultation on how to effectively prepare your business to successfully and quickly raise capital through crowdfunding–via social media and other online tools. “Coffee & The Crowd” is an online webinar training program series that gives participants an opportunity to enjoy a free cup of Starbucks coffee, compliments of ProHatch, while being educated on the latest information about crowdfunding and business preparation by both ProHatch and industry experts. Register now; participation takes place this week.
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Posts Tagged ‘crowdfunding’
Web.com Small Business Toolkit: EarlyShares Small Business Challenge (Contest)
October 9th, 2012 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichEarlyShares Small Business Challenge
EarlyShares, an equity-based crowdfunding platform, has launched a contest asking small business owners to pitch ideas on how their business model can help create new jobs and stimulate the U.S. economy. Entrants compete for a $25,000 grand prize; second- and third-place winners receive $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. In the spirit of crowdsourcing, the public will vote on the top pitches (although a panel of judges also contributes to the selection process). The contest runs through October 31st, with crowd voting taking place November 2-7. Winners will be announced on November 9th.
Google+What the JOBS Act’s Crowdfunding Provision Means for Your Small Business
July 5th, 2012 :: Karen AxeltonBy Karen Axelton
Have you used crowdfunding to raise capital for your business, or have you considered it? The JOBS Act signed into law by President Obama on April 5 creates new potential for entrepreneurs to raise money via crowdfunding—but also adds new levels of complexity.
According to crowdsourcing.org, global crowdfunding raised some $1.5 billion in 2011. Prior to the JOBS Act, crowdfunding sites were only able to solicit donations from contributors—not investments. Because these were donations, they were typically small amounts. A crowdfunding provision of the JOBS Act changes that, allowing small business owners to raise investments (up to $1 million per investor) via crowdfunding websites.
As of July 4, you will be able to crowdfund from “accredited investors” (whose net worth, excluding the value of their primary residence, is more than $1 million). But the SEC still has to put final regulations in place as to how entrepreneurs will be allowed to solicit crowdfunding from nonaccredited investors.
The SEC is expected to release these regulations in January 2013. What can you do in the meantime? Use the intervening months to educate yourself about crowdfunding and the various platforms for doing so. One estimate puts the number of active crowdfunding sites at more than 450, and that number is projected to increase by as much as 25 percent by the end of the year.
Some of the benefits of crowdfunding as opposed to seeking financing from angel investors or venture capitalists:
- It allows you to tap into a market of interested, non-professional investors who are also likely to be customers of your product.
- You will be able to raise money from people you know even if they aren’t accredited investors.
- You can raise capital for creating a prototype or market-testing your product before launching it.
- Unlike traditional capital-raising, crowdfunding also creates public awareness of your business, serving as a marketing tool.
Of course, crowdfunding investments is not a simple process, and you will need to enlist legal and accounting help from someone familiar with the process. In the meantime, some existing crowdfunding platforms to check out include SomoLend, Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Peerbacker. You can learn more about crowdsourcing in general at www.crowdsourcing.org.
Image by Flickr user Karen O’D (Creative Commons)
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Small Biz Resource Tip: Kickstarter
November 10th, 2011 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichSince crowdfunding is all the rage these days, why not try it as a way raise money for your business idea? If you think you’ve got a winning idea, people around the world might think so too and want to see you succeed. Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects, and every week thousands of people pledge millions of dollars to help creative entrepreneurs get their projects off the ground. From music and art to technology, food and design, if your idea fits in the creative category, you have a chance to make your pitch and receive financing. Project owners keep 100 percent of the donations and retain control over their work.
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Crowdfunding Sites Offer Insights Into Hot Business Trends
August 17th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
Are you a business-to-business marketer looking for new prospects who own growing firms? Are you a trend-watcher looking to spy up-and-coming new trends your business can profit from? If either of these descriptions fits you, you could benefit from paying attention to the growing trend of crowdfunding, the Enterprise Council on Small Business (ECSB) reports.
If you’re not familiar with crowdfunding, it’s a relatively new way to obtain capital by getting small amounts of money from a large number of people. Crowdfunding typically operates via online communities and websites; IndieGoGo, Kickstarter and SoKap are a few that ECSB cites.
Startups or companies ready to expand use the sites to pitch their business ideas or reason for seeking funding. Then members of the “crowd” have the chance to invest whatever they choose. In essence, they vote with their dollars, funding the businesses and ideas that they believe have the most potential.
Crowdfunding has several uses for your small business even if you’re not seeking financing, ECSB contends. Because these sites act as a kind of referendum on viable ideas, they enable you to see new business ideas in action and how the crowd responds to them. By seeing what investors think is (and isn’t) fundable, you get a good idea of what products, services and markets have growth potential as hot future trends. For instance, the growing market for smartphone apps is one that you could have spotted by watching crowdfunding trends a few years ago.
If you’re a BtoB marketer, watching crowdfunding sites is also a great way to find potential customers. Crowdfunding sites give you access to people who are, or are going to become, entrepreneurs—and lets you access them right at the moment when they’re launching or undergoing growth. Both situations are times when they’re likely to need new products and services and be more open to making a change to new vendors.
If you’re in a high-tech industry or other arena that caters to young entrepreneurs, crowdfunding sites can be particularly valuable to you. The people seeking crowdfunding, by nature, tend to be younger and more tech-savvy, ECSB points out. Participating on crowdfunding sites helps you see what these business owners are thinking and what their business hopes and dreams are—all of which can help you market to them more effectively.
Image by Flickr user Vinoth Chandar (Creative Commons)
Google+Small Biz Resource Tip: Peerbackers
June 24th, 2011 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichMany ambitious entrepreneurs looking for out-of-the-box financing are starting to look into the popularity of crowdfunding—offering investment opportunities (mostly online) to anyone and everyone who might take an interest in their companies. The draw for investors is that the investment doesn’t have to be large at all. In fact, many times crowdfunding targets the entrepreneur’s friends and families and provides an easy way for loved ones to support the business. Peerbackers is on online funding platform where contributors can give as little as $10 to make an entrepreneur’s dream come true. Also, Peerbackers will help you set up and fulfill a rewards program for contributors.
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