Have you ever dreamed? Your answer is sure to be yes, but this time my question is not directed at dreams in general. I mean dreams like goals, ideas, sketches or projects. These ideas come from the ability to dream, to see what others do not even notice.
Without a doubt there are many people who have an innovative, creative and original business idea, and even more, they have the capacity to develop and carry it out. Each time, countless young entrepreneurs, new ideas or project managers arise in the institutions, with the hope of a prominent economic future.
But unfortunately, in this materialistic world dreams are expensive, they need a lot of money to be able to come true. With business ideas, the same thing is necessary for large capital investments to finance and implement these ideas, to look for one, two or three investors who contribute large amounts of money or to look for financial companies and banks that can grant us credits. for the implementation of the same. It is then, the economic resource a main limitation for people with business ideas to desert, as they are frustrated by the different barriers that the institutions put on them or the exaggerated stipulations of investors in the agreements. Taking into account this problem and the needs of the society in which,more and more individuals with the intention of creating their own businesses taking those dreams into action is that a crowdfunding financial alternative is emerging mainly in the US.
What does Crowdfunding mean?
Surely you have never heard this term, however today due to the great evolution of the internet and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, it is necessary to introduce into our language terms that in globalization are emerging and that by In the middle of technology, they have been enhanced in recent years within economic and financial systems, such as Crowdfunding, that is, a term made up of two words:
Crowd: (crowd, crowd) a group of individuals, of undetermined numbers, who have voluntarily made the decision to participate endlessly in external influence
Funding: (funds, financing) funds that are generally considered as money and financing is the receipt of money
Therefore, the definition of crowdfunding is: (Mass financing, crowdfunding), “the receipt of funds provided by a group of an undetermined number of individuals acting on their own volition without order, including barriers to entry, to from external influences ”.
Thessanw (2013) describes:
Crowdfunding (also called crowd funding, public funding, equity crowdfunding, or hyper funding) is a method of financing projects, ideas, and businesses through tipping for many small financial contributors to support or donate, most often through Internet and special crowdfunding platforms. This method of financing is particularly appropriate for ideas that are not otherwise suitable for gaining support from traditional sources of financing.
Crowdfunding is, then, an alternative method of obtaining financing for a business, project or idea, popularized by Kickstarter.com in the United States.
The term was coined in 2006 and has made a breakthrough in a big way in the US when crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and IndieGoGo started producing successful projects.
In other words, what it consists of is carrying out a collective cooperation, carried out through the internet, by people who make a network to get money or other resources, to finance business ideas, projects or initiatives of other people or organizations.. This alternative can be used for various purposes and around the world it has been conducive to financing the birth of business ideas, political campaigns or promoting tours of current music groups.
This model is believed to be more successful in many cases than making a total required investment from a single individual or few investors. Also, while some investors may be reluctant to invest in an unproven idea, crowdfunding offers an alternative form of seed or seed capital and a host of sponsors.
How do Crowdfunding platforms mainly work?
Crowdfunding for business is carried out largely on the Internet through various crowdfunding websites, each of these platforms or sites have their own operating rules, but there are some that are usually common among all of them.
Here, it is about sharing your business dream with the crowd that uses the website, selling them the idea to make it come true, it will depend on you to a great extent that this is achieved, because remember that it is something you long for. Steps:
- Publication of your idea on these platforms, within one of the categories with a description of it and make it public to the rest of the users who will then become possible patrons. Indicate the amount of money you need to carry out the project and will set certain amounts. donation to which you will assign some rewards. Set a deadline by which the requested amount must have been collected. From here the project will be in the hands of the users, who can review and invest in it if they deem it convenient.
However, it is important to underline that in order to receive financing, it is essential that by the end of the established date, the requested amount must have been reached 100%, if not, the money would be returned to investors. In a way, this has a logical explanation, it is assumed that the amount we ask for must be adequate to complete the project and if we do not reach this amount it is very possible that we will not be able to carry it out successfully or have to leave it halfway. It would not be fair to investors.
Finally, once the deadline is over, if the cost has been reached or exceeded, you will receive the money to complete your project.
Why not only in the United States, in Mexico we also anchor.
Just as in the United States, Russia, Argentina or France, in Mexico just a year ago and attending to these globalization needs within the economy and within companies using the internet and social networks as the main tool, a crowdfunding platform called Fondeadora, a 100% Mexican entrepreneurial website that promotes the collection of resources for high-value projects using Crowdfunding or "mass financing" as the main strategy.
Fondeadora's effort is aimed at providing a platform that allows anyone with a good idea to materialize their project. In the democratic spirit of the Internet, the idea is to free the “creators” of a sterile financing structure in which you need to go through the bureaucracy, have contacts in key positions or have a lot of money to be able to complete a project.
Crowdfunding benefits
- You control everything, including costs, timing, deliveries, creative insight, and execution, marketing, and customer interactions. You keep your assets - projects and companies remain 100% yours. You get a chance to test and demonstrate popularity. of your model, using only pre-production or material prototypes. You have the ability to test your product's marketing approach and how well individual promotional or global campaigns work with targeted consumers. do much more than you intended or asked. With crowdfunding, if your product is closely in tune with your audience, it can easily exceed the funding goal. There are successful campaigns that have achieved an objective 8 times greater than the one proposed. Well-developed projects or with luck,They make broad contributions with just a good speech. They can exceed funding goals many times, without having to justify every additional dollar contributed, if you don't succeed at first. If you do not meet your goal, you lose nothing (more than the time and bruises that could be associated with a public image shake) and you can try again, with a new plan and an improvement in your presentation. You can pre-sell your product or service, and depending on the cost associated with it, you may be able to get more from your collaborators who believe in your product, than the price it would have in the market. An unexpected benefit of crowdfunding campaigns is that very helpful advice - and even concrete offers of assistance - are often received from collaborators who, after all,They want you to be successful and will do everything possible to help you get there. Followers of your project will be "incorporated" into your marketing team and will be the promoters of your brand, helping to promote the project among their friends and contacts..
That is why, just as a term that at first seemed unknown to your person has now been interesting, you cannot deny that they even gave you the chance to propose those dreams that you have in mind in one of the Crowdfunding platforms and be able to cement those ideas of businesses that for years have welcomed you.
Crowdfunding, as we have seen, is just one more financing alternative to bring those ideas to reality, keeping up to date on current trends and market forces to influence companies is essential.
To achieve crowdfunding success in business ideas, it would not only be necessary to put the idea on a crowdfunding platform, but also to plan and forecast it in addition to being able to clearly communicate the vision and build an argument for weight for the product or idea.
In short, now the economic resource is no longer a problem to be able to finance a business idea, dreams can come true just a matter of being constant, searching for the fulfillment of ideas and of course having the internet at home.
It is widely true that this field of Crowdfunding is somewhat new, but nevertheless at the rate in which society and technology evolve, I do not doubt that it will soon be highly competitive. But if you are prepared and really have something to offer the public, the best option is to try it. In the end you have little to lose by trying to crowdfund your idea, instead fulfilling your dream to gain.
Bibliography
- FUNDING MACHINE. (2012). Retrieved APRIL 03, 2013, from http://www.fondeadora.mx/STEINBERG, S., & RUSEL, DM (2012). THE CROWDFUNDING BIBLE. Retrieved APRIL 02, 2013, from http://www.crowdfundingguides.com/The Crowdfunding Bible.pdfTHESSANW. (2013, FEBRUARY 01). COMAROUND.
