If you intend to start any business or a project, there is almost no way around having money, right?. But how do you raise the money you need? When you do not have a water proof business plan, then topic of investors, business angels and venture capital money can not be on the table. Our brand is a sustainable one with the idea to create more Jobs for African youths, so HubCouture all about handmade fashion empowerment which makes it even more difficult to get funding. Lets check out some of the classic ways available when it comes to raising start-up capital.
Number 1: Crowd investment – In countries with reliable economic structures, the new hype now is crowd investment. Instead of one big investor to bring a couple of millions, hundreds of people invest smaller amount like from 1K up to 30K. Everyone shares the risk. If you fail, no money. If you succeed, you pay back with interest.
Number 2: government Grants – Federal, state or local government issue out series of grants to people with solution and access to specific problems like in field of health, education, empowerment. Sometimes grans get really serious and becomes consistent contracts in some communities. The great thing here i that you are not expect dto pay back this money. But this money is always tied to obligations, so sometimes, your business idea might not even fit this grant. And the possibility of getting this grant is less that 5%. First of all you need to know that this grant exist, secondly, does it fit your agenda, thirdly, can you present a badass proposal, fourthly, must you have the right connections? Fifth, do you have the ability to perform and deliver?
Number 3: Bank – Seriously, I would want to skip this, because if you do not have a guarantee, guarantor and or a badass business plan, do not even make the call. In upcoming weeks, i will talk about a badass business plan. That is the business plan that even if your plan is thrown into the pacific ocean, it will be intact.
Number 4: Crowdfunding – This is similar to crowd investment, only that you do not pay back on the investment nor do you have interest. So your friends, family, partners, people who like your ideas, potential customers donates a specific amount and in return you offer them something on the spot. So for example, if you want to start a music label company, you can make a demo single and offer them the cd, merchandise items, like your poster, tshirt with your musicians and in return they pay some amount of money. Crowd funding is limited to a specific time and you need to have the right platform to do this. whats absolutely great about crowd funding is when your project involves consumer goods or B2C market. So you can actually test the product through the crowd funding campaign. If you fail, whatever you have offered is already gone. If you succeed, then everything you earn belongs to you.
Here are the top ten crowdfunding platforms to check out: Gofundme, Kickstarters or Indiegogo, Teespring, Patreon, Youcaring, Croadrise, Donorschoose, Kiva – micro lending, Giveforward, Startnext (Fro german speaking audience). You also have Causes, Cwrodit, first giving, Honeyfund, Fundrazr, Razoo, fundable, Crowd funder, Circleup, Rally.org and many others. Some are worth a try But there are rules, must dos and don’ts. To get money from the crowd, you should make a video, write up, pictures,interesting gifts, pledge, social media active. Make another video to promote your youtube video, tel friends. You will see dozens of project that was set up to do something in Nigeria. Like people travelling for a business, humanitarian cause or to start a project – check this link – https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=search&term=nigeria
If you really want to raise funds for you business, then you should register for my business lab. Check out the course curriculum and you will be amazed! You can take the free welcome series to learn more.
