Joshua Isibor, Josef Holm
CROWDFUNDING LIFELINE – STAND FROM THE CROWD.
BOOST YOUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE EMPOWERING TOOLS WHILE AVOIDING THESE MISTAKES
JOSHUA ISIBOR
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CROWDFUNDING – STAND FROM THE CROWD Copyright @2015 by Joshua Isibor
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
In this Ebook, I included three (3) chapters. You can download the complete Ebook on www.standfromthecrowd.info. Get Access Now
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PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM JOSHUA ISIBOR Dear Reader, I want to first congratulate you for taking this big step to improving your crowdfunding campaign. You’re about to add a tremendous amount of income to your business, as long as you take advantage of the lessons presented in this book. Mastering the tools and using the tips has helped individuals improved their campaigns and to reach their goals. As an entrepreneur, I understand the need for your business to have access to capital. As a human, I also care about family, environment etc. Simply put, I care about your success in your worthwhile endeavors. So take advantage of this book, read it, share it with your friends, and use the lessons therein to better your campaign. I have also included a bonus for you I have also included a BONUS for you. MORE GIFTS. QUICKLY GO TO THE BONUS CHAPTER TO TAKE IT NOW. Once more, go to www.standfromthecrowd.info to download your copy.
Yours truly, Joshua Isibor
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CONTENT PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM AUTHOR
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INTRODUCTION / PROFOUND TRUTH
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A SHORT BUT COMPELLING STORY
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CHAPTER 1: A BRIEF HISTORY – IDEA GENERATION – CAPITAL – BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
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WHAT IS CROWDFUNDING?
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WHAT CAN BE CROWDFUNDED?
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WHERE TO START?
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SO WHAT NEXT?
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CHAPTER 2: CLEAR UP THE MYTHS AND GET STARTED
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MYTH #1
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MYTH #2
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MYTH #3
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MYTH #4
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MYTH #5
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MYTH #6 CHAPTER 3: BOOST YOUR VOCABULARY (CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY)
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CHAPTER 4: GET INSIGHT - USE STATISTICS
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KEY CROWDFUNDING STATISTICS
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CHAPTER 5: PICKING THE RIGHT CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM
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CHAPTER 6: 3 PR MISTAKES YOU SHOULD AVOID
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CHAPTER 7: TOOLS, TOOLS, TOOLS,
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RESEARCH TOOLS
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PUBLICITY TOOLS
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BONUS…FREE GIFT
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INTRODUCTION PROFOUND TRUTH. Here is a quote I found on the internet that I can attest to. It is shown in the image below. This is a profound truth whether we choose to believe or not. Every day, our minds generate tons of ideas ranging from cutlery to purchase to being a great husband or wife and parent; to business strategies etc. If there is anything the world including ourselves will never lack is ideas generation. But what will be lacking will be at some point is the courage or guts to act on it.
Maybe you consider yourself not so great with ideas or a creative genius. Maybe you don’t have an idea at the moment or you do and you are stuck. Maybe you have excelled or do not know where to start, be assured that you will be fine. Always remember that the antidote to fear is KNOWLEDGE and its APPLICATION which is called WISDOM.
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So you will be defeating yourself if you keep focusing on what is missing instead of what is and what will be needed to fill what is missing. Whatever level your idea generation currently is, you can always improve. While this book will help in enlightening you on raising fund via crowdfunding, it is not meant to be a personal motivational book. That is beyond the scope of this book.
I have also included a free gift, a bonus on the last page on this ebook. Ensure to take advantage of it. You can do that right now before you continue reading.
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A SHORT BUT COMPELLING STORY… THE BASIS FOR THIS EBOOK It goes: "Once upon a time there was this quaint little village. It was a great place to live except for one problem. The village had no water unless it rained. To solve this problem once and for all, the village elders decided to put out to bid the contract to have water delivered to the village on a daily basis. Two people volunteered to take on the task and the elders awarded the contract to both of them. They felt that a little competition would keep prices low and ensure a back-up supply of water. Self Employed Thinking "The first of the two people who won the contract, Ed, immediately ran out, bought two galvanised steel buckets and began running back and forth along the trail to the lake which was a mile away. He immediately began making money as he labored morning to dusk hauling water from the lake with his two buckets. He would empty them into the large concrete holding tank the village had built. Each morning he had to get up before the rest of the village awoke to make sure there was enough water for the village when it wanted it. It was hard work, but he was very happy to be making money and for having one of the two exclusive contracts for this business. Business Owner Thinking "The second winning contractor, Bill, disappeared for a while. He was not seen for months, which made Ed very happy since he had no competition. Ed was making all the money. "Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan, created a corporation, found four investors, employed a president to do the work and returned six months later with a construction crew. Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipeline which connected the village to the lake. At the grand opening celebration, Bill announced that his water was cleaner than Ed’s water. Bill knew that there had been complaints about dirt in Ed’s water. Bill also announced that he could supply the village with water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ed could only deliver water on the weekdays--he did not work on weekends. Then Bill announced that he would charge 75% less than Ed did for this higher quality and more reliable source of water. The village cheered and ran immediately for the faucet at the end of Bill’s pipeline. In order to compete, Ed immediately lowered his rates by 75%, bought two more buckets, added covers to his buckets and began hauling four buckets each trip. In order to provide better service, he hired his two sons to give him a hand for the night shift and on weekends. When his boys went off to college, he said to them, "Hurry back because someday this business will belong to you." For some reason, after college, his two sons never returned. Eventually Ed had employees and union problems. The union was demanding higher wages, better benefits and wanted its members to only haul one bucket at a time.
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"Bill, on the other hand, realised that if this village needed water then other villages must need water too. He rewrote his business plan and went off to sell his high speed, high volume, and low cost and clean water delivery system to villages throughout the world. He only makes a penny per bucket of water delivered, but he delivers billions of buckets of water, and all that money pours into his bank account. Bill had developed a pipeline to deliver money to himself as well as water to the villages. This story is credited to Robert Kiyosaki.
While some may feel sorry for Ed and understandably so, we can agree to this fact: that Bill stood out from the crowd. Maybe what Ed did was what a normal villager would think and do. To him, it was the obvious solution, what everyone else (that is, the crowd) would do. But not so with Bill. Lesson: To succeed, you must be willing to stand out from the crowd and be unique. This is not a new advice anyway.
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CHAPTER ONE: A BRIEF HISTORY – IDEA GENERATION – CAPITAL – BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT As early as the beginning of man’s existence, humans have always engaged in various economic activities. There were people who had ideas but short on capital to execute it. Some decided to slave for a while to enable them raise some funds, others sold their properties to raise extra funds. Still, others took loans to jumpstart their businesses. Whatever method it was at the time, it worked quite well for some but not all.
Now, we have banks and more recently more channels in accessing funds for our business ideas or an existing company. These are Investors. The channels are VCs (Venture Capitalist), Angels, and the baby of them all, crowdfunding.
WHAT IS CROWDFUNDING? For beginners, crowdfunding as the name suggests, is a funding method where common people like you and me, henceforth the crowd, fund your personal or business project with their money. There’s a term that we commonly use to describe this money giving action; it’s called a donation.
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What can be crowdfunded? 1) Your personal projects like travel, health care, making potato salad and things like these. 2) Your business projects irrespective of the niche or area of interest. There are people who have similar interests as you and are willing to donate to support your funding campaign.
Where to start? a) For newbies, start by creating a product or a have a well-defined business plan of what you want to do. b) Once completed, spread the word out to your friends and families, start campaign c) Extend your reach to a community via social networks d) Present them your offer and reward e) Collect funds and thank your community f) Start your project
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Well, this is just a simple way to describe the basic requirements for crowdfunding. Lots of people do this and end there. That is why, I call it the basic requirement. To stand out from the crowd, you must be willing to go beyond the basics into a professional level.
SO, WHAT NEXT?
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You need to do the following.
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CHAPTER 2 CLEAR UP THE MYTHS AND GET STARTED Inspiring entrepreneurs or individuals wanting to start a crowdfunding campaign have been unable to launch any campaign because of some myths that is close to their hearts. Here are some.
#1
Crowdfunding is just an alternative source of funding where one fails to raise funds from Venture Capitalist (VCs) or Angels. The first ever Crowdfunding Industry Report, from Massolution, revealed that $1.5 billion was raised in 2011 from sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc. That’s a lot of investment! Money to crowdfunding projects continues to nearly double every year and is estimated to reach $300 billion by 2025 from $10 billion last year (2014). This is a major source of funding for any business.
#2
Crowdfunding is best for start-ups, small personal projects and charity. While startups, small businesses and charity have all used crowdfunding platforms, it’s actually established businesses that have the most success raising money. That’s because established businesses already have a lot of the marketing and community in-place that will help you raise money through the crowd. This is not to say that start-ups, small personal projects don’t raise funds.
#3
Any reward system is good for my backers or donors. This is a myth. There are four types of crowdfunding you need to be familiar with namely: a. Reward based crowdfunding b. Donation based crowdfunding c. Equity crowdfunding 13
d. Debt crowdfunding a) Reward Based Crowdfunding: In rewards-based crowdfunding, backers contribute typically small amounts of money (typically between $1 and $1,000 but sometimes more) in exchange for a reward. This reward is often, but not always, the item being produced, such as a watch, an album or a film. b) Donation Based Crowdfunding: donors donate a small amount of money in exchange for gratitude and the feeling of supporting a cause they believe in. c) Equity Crowdfunding: investors invest large amounts of money in a company in exchange for a small piece of equity in the company. d) Debt Crowdfunding: lenders make a loan with the expectation to make back their principal plus interest.
#4
Any crowdfunding platform is good for my campaign. In crowdfunding, selecting the right category for your crowdfunding campaign is critical to the ultimate success of your project. At first glance, this may be an intuitive process as you would imagine that there would be only one category for a given project. Unfortunately, many times a crowdfunding project may fall into multiple categories, such as a technology product that happens to operate in the music industry. This example would fit both in technology and in music, and hence, a decision must be made to determine the best category for a given project. Additionally, the platforms have different categories and different success rates in a given category. Thoroughly reviewing the platforms and the multiple options available will set you as the project creator up for success. Luckily, there are tools that you can use to make the right decision. This is will covered in the last chapter. That being said, here is another tip. Examine the type of category you would be running. For example, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two most popular rewards-based crowdfunding platforms but there are LOTS of other platforms like TubeStart.com. GoFundMe and Crowdrise are two popular donation-based crowdfunding platforms but there are lots of others. You can also do donation-based crowdfunding on Indiegogo and even Kickstarter but you have to be within each
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platforms guidelines. For instance, on Kickstarter you can’t promise to donate funds raised to a charity or cause. AngelList and Crowdfunder are two of the most popular equitycrowdfunding platforms in the United States, but there are lots of others. Fundable, EarlyShares and CircleUp are other popular platforms in the U.S. and and Crowdcube and Seedrs are popular in the U.K. and Europe. S
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#6
My Invention has to be high-tech. This is also not true. Projects that have actually been successful in their funding campaigns are those that are simple that an ordinary person can relate to and use.
Once my campaign goes live, people will flock to my page to contribute. The reality is this: the significant majority of crowdfunded monetary support comes from an organization’s pre-existing network and people reached through dedicated marketing efforts.
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In other words, most crowdfunding sites simply offer the platform, but organizations must tap their own networks, social media channels and marketing resources if they expect to successfully reach their fundraising goal.
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CHAPTER 3 BOOST YOUR VOCABULARY (CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY) Why give attention to this? Words have power. It motivates, encourages, inspires, set things straight, demoralizes, tears things down, etc. No wonder, the Bible says that death and life are in the power of the tongue. When you speak directly to people and you are not clearly understood, you could use many other words to explain yourself. But when you write or make a video about your campaign, you may not have that opportunity. So choosing your words carefully is important. So we will focus on some words to avoid when making your campaign videos, posts on social networks or your website, and emails. Why videos? Although, it is not compulsory, the statistics makes it necessary. Here it is.
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This book is not intended to explain how to create viral and engaging videos. However, you will learn about some words you should NEVER consider USING given the context. Here they are: 1. Really: "Avoiding this word is a really great idea." Reason: A really great idea is the same as a great idea. If you need to emphasize something, such as the "greatness" of an idea, use a single word that means what you are trying to say, e.g., "Avoiding this word is an excellent idea." 2. "Innovative." Reason: I can't remember ever hearing Apple claim to be innovative; they just are. That's true of every company that actually innovates or a product that is innovative. For them, it's just normal everyday behavior. They don't have to point it out.
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3. "Opportunity." Reason: This is the classic case of a word that sounds positive but carries a huge load of "it's all about me." Calling any crowdfunding campaign an "opportunity" is like telling your audience that you're all about closing the deal. Just like any other opportunist. Your audience are intelligent to tell if your idea is an opportunity to them or to you. 4. A lot: For example, "A lot of writing could be made better." Reason: How much is "a lot"? 100 documents? 50% of everything I have written? 1% of one million books? The term "a lot" is meaningless without the context, but if you give the context, you don't need the term "a lot." Also, this is highly subjective. "A lot" to one person may seem like "some" to another. 5. ‘That’s certainly different!’ A statement such as this could be anything from a ringing endorsement to a stinging condemnation or even an admission of ‘I have no idea what the heck this is all about’. Differences, like ‘change’, can be good or bad and for every company that differentiates itself by its excellence there’s at least one other that achieves it by mediocrity. 6. ‘That said...’ Put at the front of just about any sentence, these two little words form what is quite possibly one of the most destructive phrases in the English language. I am constantly amazed at how people can unwittingly shoot down everything they have been saying by using these two words. To most people’s ears, ‘that said’ immediately invalidates everything that has gone before and can breed instant resentment in the listener who may have been buying into the subject matter before ‘that’ was ‘said’. As a verbal bridge from the pros to the cons, try using something like, ‘Of course, we shouldn’t overlook...’ 7. ‘Okay.’ Apparently this is the most universally recognized word on the planet next to Coca-Cola and yet it is one of the most ambiguous. The original meaning is rumored to have come from ‘Oll Korrect’ but in popular usage it can mean a wide range of things. One person’s ‘okay’ might mean ‘good’, another’s ‘it’s adequate’ and to yet another’s ‘barely acceptable’. It is a word that is also used in a dismissive manner. 8. ‘Quite’. Quite is a word that can cause as much trouble for Americans visiting the UK as it can for Brits in the USA: the word is ‘quite’. To an American, ‘quite good’ means ‘very good’ whereas to a British ear it can mean anything from ‘reasonably good’ to ‘barely acceptable’. If in doubt it’s best to avoid it on both sides of the Atlantic as the results can be quite dangerous.
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You will notice that I used examples of writing and speaking. This is not an oversight. My point is this,
YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR WORDS OR PHRASES CAREFULLY. IT IS ONE OF YOUR LIFELINES.
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BONUS … LIVE TRAINING We’ve been through quite the journey just now. I want you to understand that this is just the beginning. Read this book again. Make sure you really understand and master the concepts that are here. I have literally given you a lifeline and NOW I’M OFFERING YOU A TICKET TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM. You can start now to build the business of your dreams by taking advantage of crowdfunding. However, I have some good news. You and I, we’re not done yet. I want to invite you to join my friends LIVE for even more training. We want to spend some time with you LIVE and go over the exact science or formula used to meet our crowdfunding campaign target. We still have plenty more case studies and secrets that we want to show you especially the scientific approach used to raise 500,000 dollars in 7 days.
Some questions still arises though. Here are some.
What if I don’t have an idea, can I still use crowdfund lifeline?
What if my offer or reward is not good enough?
Will I be taught on a step by step basis on how to launch my crowdfunding campaign?
Will I succeed?
Etc. These questions and more will be answered. In short, you will be handheld in a step by step approach to succeed in your campaign. Here is a quick note. You WON’T need any previous crowdfunding experience. You WON’T have to know anything about driving traffic, marketing or tech You WON’T have to purchase any inventory upfront.
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Most importantly, you WON’T have to “INVENT” anything either (although we will be covering how to launch more complex inventions too!)
You will also learn how to source products direct from a manufacturer and market them on a crowdfunding platform in a VERY specific way.
Actually, what we really want to do is completely roll back the curtain and give you the golden-ticket to enter and be able to launch a successful campaign GUARANTEED. No holds barred. No man left behind. We are going to show you everything. We have put together a Free LIVE training event. We’re starting promptly on September 15th . All you need to do is follow this link and save your Free seat. That’s right – 100% Free. There’s no trick. Just more raw, life-changing training from yours truly. The only question I have for you now is – are you truly serious about taking control of your life? If your answer is YES, then don’t stop here. Register now for our free training and let’s get started. I can’t wait to work directly with you. I can’t wait to hear your insanely successful story. Now, let’s stop reading and let’s start doing. I’ll see you on the other side!
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