Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello Everyone,

If your in business or starting a business or have a dream that you want to see become reality, I may have found a way to help fund it. It's called " Crowd Funding". I am using it to help get some funding in place to fund a larger venture that I am working on. If you would like more information on Crowd Funding or want to "donate" to my fund drop me a note and I will show you how.

Rob,

You'll want to get advice from tax and securities professionals on how to treat the transactions correctly and report them properly.

Crowdfunding is really the best funding solution for a start-up company that doesn't need such a great amount of funds. Crowdfunding is different from other funding sources because you don't have to return the investment and you don't give away any of your shares!

For many people, the thought of taking significant financial risk holds them back from jumping head-long into launching the idea that has been stuck in the recesses of their head. This little collection of crowdfunding websites and web applications are designed to take the risk out of that creativity and innovation, allowing even the little guy to do something amazing.

Crowdfunding is a really interesting way to raise funds. First you have to know how crowdfunding works and then you can make it work for your company as well. So read lots of tutorials before and make sure to have a great marketing campaign if you are interested in havin good results.

Hi Rob,

Crowdfunding is an excellent way of raising funds for any cause, need, or project! BUT people often make the mistake of just believing that setting up a page on a Crowdfunding website will be enough to get funded.  Unfortunately it's not...

You actually have to set your page up properly and then be pro-active about promoting your fundraiser to as many people as possible.

You also have to realize that for someone to consider funding you they need to have a personal or emotional connection to you or your cause/project.  So what are you doing, on your Crowdfunding page and through your promoting, to connect with people?!?  It's an important question to always ask!

I would highly recommend that you read the Online Donations page, which covers setting up your campaign page effectively, and it's part 2 which covers the promoting side of things, on Rewarding Fundraising Ideas to get the most out of your Crowdfunder!

Be proactive and connect with people and you'll have a successful Crowdfunding fundraiser!

Regards,

Rob

Hopefully the proposed passing of the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act will ensure that crowdfunding takes a larger role in funding startups. I can see it being a massive growth area in 2012, it's just ensuring that the right approach is taken. Here's a good Wiki of crowdfunding sites across a few different industries. There have already been a few successes in Europe, with Crowdcube funding a few businesses in England, and Seedups in the UK, Ireland and now the US too.

Connor

Another concept that is catching on these days that is very similar to crowd funding / sourcing is something called Peer to Peer lending.  Places like "Prosper" are really beginning to take off and gain in popularity.  Lending Club is another one I heard good things about.  A great resource for crowd sourcing information is also www.crowdsourcing.org .  This is one of my favorite topics but I have yet to use it too much other then giving to a few good causes through some of charitable crowd sourcing websites which I think our so cool.

Crowd funding (sometimes called crowd financing, crowd sourced capital, or street performer protocol) describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.