(Crowd)financing is gaining more and more in popularity, but that doesn't mean that its executed and organized well.
In too many cases that we witness, experience and we recognize how difficicult it for business owners and start-ups to let go, and allow others to participate actively in the campaign, expertise and influence in the decision making.
I
ts a human trait and especially evident in business owners if you are not careful you are locked in on a path that is rigid and leads to darkness, because you have only your own set of eyes to scan the horizon for opportunities and threats.
' This article 'The Katapult' can't be read without ' The second and just as important article 'The Agora ' (The Assembly/ The Gathering'.
You might have noticed that we use ancient words to give emphasis to the fact that we learn from the lessons of history and what worked for tyrants and for democracies, and when translated to communities still have the same meaning and relevance.
'The Katapult: a foundation for succesful (crowd)financing today and tomorrow'.
We have adviced many start-ups and business owners on the impact, importance and execution of crowdfunding.
The Katapult is the metaphor for taking time to engage and to involve your relations in your ambition, and to engage with relevant communities that share your passion and purpose and really get to know the most relevant ones.
Once you have earned the commitment of your relations and relevant communities and have made arrangements on tasks and roles than you can rely on the potential outcome of a (crowd)funding campaign.
Its also means a redefinition of existing community strategies, but in most cases it means that for the first time time is taken to think about what you want to achieve and how to organize your communities on Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and
Twitter.
These platforms are not about what you want, but about what you share and want to make happen together and involving as many people/organisations as possible.
This effort takes times, but its time well spent and an investment in your the - foundations of your business resiliency. This cooperation does in most cases not involve financial compensation, but is based on content and knowledge sharing.
If businesses really commit to this bulding of relationships its already possible to start with the first phase of crowdfunding which we call the - Agora stage. Connect and invite the right people and business to participate and to invest in your business based on mutual recognizable gain and shared purpose.
Once you have 'assembled' your Agora than together you take the next step towards (crowd)funding the second stage of your (crowd)financing, but now together.
For the 1st stage you don't really need to start a campaign on a recognized crowfunding platform, you can rely on personal contact and contracts in which the agreed terms are written and approved.
Here are three relevant outcomes to learn from, for your resliency and based on our experience.
1. We have adviced negatively on crowdfunding in the case of 90% of our customers (relations).
This advice was based on the outcome of the analysis of the engagement of their current relations and commitment of existing community-partnerships and the time alloted to engaging with new relevant (social) media partners.
The customers have been good at collecting connections/ relations but haven't taken the time to cultivate and enage their relations. They were still accustomed to getting what they want first, instead of asking what you can achieve together.
We invest time, access to networks and expertise in building lasting communities and foundations for resilient funding today and tomorrow and for resilient entrepreneurship as a whole.
To accept a project for crowdfunding when the fealisibility study is negative is something we will NEVER do, even though it means the end of a customer relationship, because they want to get financed, and the bank has already turned them down or is not a viable alternative to start with.
So they turn to a crowdfundingplatform, that in almost all cases don't take - community engagement into account but solely on business case and a campaign proposal. These campaigns have the outcome we already predicted. (Crowd)funding is not something that can be used by every business owner, but it can be learned and managed with all the monetary and non-monetary gains as a result.
But these businesses and nonprofits are experiencing the negative effect of focusing to much on transactions, because the relationships they think they have are just connections.
2. Know when time is required to crowdfund or not yet to crowfund
The 'agency' intake is based on years of experience and has proven itself time and time again.
The intake provides us and the customer with the required insights in the current and existing foundations of your business/start-up/nonprofit.
Based on the results of the intake together with the customer an income generating plan is made in which time is taken to engage with relations and still generate an income based on non crowdfunding activities, because income/ financing can be generated in many ways, crowdfunding is just one.
The activities need to be organized together with relations, and the business owner/startup/nonprofit should take the role that best suits them, because nobody has all the skills and traits required to become a succesful entrepreneur. Every startup that works alone, will quit and be frustrated which is unfortunate because it only requires working with 2 or 3 other relations each selected on their skill and shared passion for the ambition to realize how much is gained by working this way.
3. Build and invest time and effort in educating/ training and to organize access to financing locally.
Based on our experience and what businesses/startups/nonprofits require we have started investing in the organizing and creation of regional gateways/platforms to communities and financing.
The regional gateway of Den Bosch and 't Gooi (two regions of the Netherlands) were very well received and the activities are underway and many startups/nonprofits are being educated on what to do and what not to do and more....
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