By Devon Johnson, WEV’s Director of Lending
Last week I spoke to our Fall 2014 Smart Entrepreneurial Training (SET) classes about business financing. As I planned my presentation, I thought it was important to include more information about crowdfunding. So I interviewed one of the owners of MoolaHoop and was very surprised by what I learned.
The biggest surprise was how few companies are actually successful at crowdfunding. You’ve probably heard stories of companies raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is inspiring, but not the norm.
Are you thinking of utilizing crowdfunding to finance your business? We’ve developed a few key statements from our research. If you identify with all of them, then crowdfunding might be right for you:
- I’m extremely familiar/comfortable with using social media
- I have the confidence to ask people for money
- I don’t provide business-to-business services
- I can devote a lot of time to my project
- I need $15,000 or less
If you don’t identify with all (or most) of these statements, I’d strongly recommend to you more research before you invest your time and money in a crowdfunding campaign. Another resource for more information is SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives)- I’ve heard positive feedback about their crowdfunding presentations.
Have a crowdfunding story? We’d love to hear it!