Crowdfunding as a course for a young fighter

At first glance, crowdfunding is not much different from the usual collection of donations. Of course, there are some improvements, such as the “all-or-nothing” principle that applies to most sites. There is a psychological sense of complicity and co-creation as opposed to passive consumption, which makes people more willing to share money at the stage of an idea or a prototype. But there are several other factors that are not related to money, which actually force an inexperienced start-up person to build a business correctly, so that any business school will envy it. If you just take an idea or a prototype and give money for implementation, nothing like this will happen. The crowdfunding format pulls an inexperienced beginner through several stages that make him, if not a shark of capitalism, then at least a pike.

Here are the steps:

1. Advertising and promotion . To conduct a successful fundraising campaign, you have to do marketing, whether you like it or not. Exciting promotional video marketing text, active promotion through all available channels is half the success of the campaign. Every business book is written about the importance of marketing; every successful entrepreneur and business coach speaks about it, but inventors, authors and developers often neglect them, preferring to do only what they can do best - to create a great product. A crowdfunding campaign forces you to leave the comfort zone and get promoted before the product is ready.
   
   
2. Market research . Large companies spend millions on it. And with co-financing, it does not cost a penny. Knowing the preferences of customers even before the pilot batch or alpha version is ready is very useful. You can have time to correct mistakes, add the missing, cut off the excess. An inventor or startupshare is often brewed in his own juice, in a limited space of his imagination, or among friends and associates. After the start of the crowdfunding campaign, hundreds and thousands of fresh eyes will appreciate and sort out his idea. Is free.
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3. Connections and partners . Among the people who are interested in the project, there will be not only ordinary consumers. If you're lucky, there will be specialists who can give good advice or join the team, and suppliers who can offer services or raw materials of better quality or at a lower price than the project team was able to find on its own, and wholesale buyers or large sponsors.
   
   
4. Pre-order and commitment . A successful campaign leaves the authors of the project with dozens or hundreds of customers in their arms who have already paid for the purchase and are eagerly awaiting the cherished package or release. A strong motive to bring the work to the end, no matter what it takes!
   

Thus, having passed through all the hardships of a crowdfunding campaign, a start-up entrepreneur gains not only money, but also invaluable experience in promoting, selling, producing and supporting his product or service, with all the bumps and bruises stuffed about real-world corners that are not written in business literature. Plus, the community of loyal fans of his talent, which you can rely on in the future. The word “crowdfunding” reveals only one side of the process. It would be more correct to say “crowstarting”.