A New Way to Find the Money You Need To Fund a New Project

When you don't have sufficient money of your own there are a number of different ways to raise money if you want to promote a product, a good cause, a new idea, or anything else, which requires money in order to get it going.

One of the most obvious sources of lending is the bank. However, there are a couple of problems with this, the first of which is that they want it back. OK, they may not want it back for two years, five years, or in the case of a mortgage maybe 30 years. But they do want it back. Meanwhile, they want you to pay them interest. What that means is that the longer the loan the more interest you will pay. So in the case of a 30 year mortgage you could finish up paying nearly as much again as the loan you had in the first place. All right, you might argue that as the value of money diminishes over time it is not quite as bad as it looks, but it is still a hefty amount. The banks are in it for the long term.

There is also another problem and that is one of security. In some cases, you can get unsecured loans, but that means that you will pay a higher interest rate. However, in the case of, say, a mortgage, the bank will want that loan secured on your house. If you miss too many repayments, the bank will step in and foreclose, which results in them taking your home away from you and selling it in order to recover their money. In extreme cases this could mean that you would literally be out on the streets. It does happen.

Another way of securing some money is to borrow it from a friend or family member. The advantage of this is that they may not want any interest, but then again, they might, and they might not want the loan secured, but they might want that also. They could also be more forgiving if you fall on hard times and are unable to repay on the due date. Again, who knows? You sometimes think that you know people very well, but when money comes into the equation things can change.

However, in the last few years there has grown a new method of funding an enterprise, and that is called crowdfunding. This is where you promote an offer to the general public in return for some benefit in the future. Or perhaps more correctly, potential benefit.

Let's say that you have invented a new gadget, want to expand your business, or anything else which you think is going to increase your revenue. You make a proposition to the general public in which you say: "invest in my business, product, service, or whatever, and in return I will give you something back". That could be an immediate benefit such as a free sample of your new invention, or it could be an investment in your company so that when your new invention takes off and sells by the million they will see a return on their investment many times over.

Crowdfunding is becoming more and more mainstream in all sorts of areas as people take up the challenge. Surprisingly, the individual investment made can be very small - £20 or £30 or so in many cases – but then again may be considerably larger depending on the amount of money an investor has available and the view he takes of your great idea. Think Dragon's Den.

If you are going to go down the crowdfunding route, the one thing you will need is a very good sales pitch, as you have to convince people that your idea is the best. A great idea is to hire a crowdfunding marketing agency which can take your idea on board and develop a marketing strategy for you. This will include a written sales pitch, creating a crowdfunding marketing video for you (essential in the 21st century) and finding and addressing the right audience for your idea or product. The expression "you can't sell coals to Newcastle" comes to mind: the metaphor came about in the 1500's when Newcastle had been mining coal for 500 years. So you need to find the right audience.

However, a marketing agency with the right experience will be able to handle all this for you.

Wow Your Crowd is a crowdfunding marketing agency which can take your product, service, or idea, and promote it to ensure that you get the backing.