Ways a Start-up Company could Fund their Business
Crowd Funding
For small businesses that are planning on starting up, generally small ones that have either 1-5 people working in it, crowdfunding is a very good choice for them, not only does it get funding from the public, it also gets you known, so then whatever you start providing, you already have people out there that know your name, this could be described as ‘building the hype’.
Kickstarter
I’m starting with Kickstarter because I believe it’s one of the most effective methods of crowdfunding. Generally what you do is make your page describing some sort of project along with a financial goal, and people can donate. Being the owner of the page, you can also encourage people to donate more, using milestones like donating £1, £5 or £20 can offer different rewards for the donator, for example say you’re starting up a video game company and want to release your first game, but need some funding to help its release, offering rewards like in-game DLC or even a free copy of the game once the project completes.
Patreon
Patreon is very much like Kickstarter, the difference is, it uses monthly payments instead. The public can choose to donate money each month to a project, person or company, and that page can also offer milestone rewards, and so long as the plan is still active, they will continue to be eligible for them rewards.
Business Incubators
Business Incubators are organisations that focus on speeding up and helping the growth of a start-up business, they are collaborative programs which will help people solve problems that come with launching a start-up business, they can provide space to work, seed funding, mentoring, training and a few other benefits. Most of the time they are run by non-profit organisations like universities, government bodies or civic groups.
Pros
- Long-term support, which can include office space.
- Collaborative Environment, where you can learn a lot from other start-ups like yourselves
Cons
- Can damage your focus.
- Investors can take a larger share of your business in exchanges for more in-depth and longer support and investment from them.
Angel Investors
An Angel Investor is a wealthy individual that agrees to invest in a small start-up business, in most cases, the Angel Investor is among the family and friends of the entrepreneur in question. They believe in both the company and the owner, and they are different from venture capitalists, Angel Investors want the business to succeed for both money and personal reasons, for example seeing a friend or relative be successful in life, venture capitalists are just in it for the profit.
Angel Investors will provide a one time investment to the entrepreneur, usually a couple 100 thousand, to help get the business off the ground, in return for partial ownership of the company. They also offer advice and expertise to the owner to help the business grow and keep it under control. Entrepreneurs can benefit greatly from Angel Investors, however some Angel Investors can too closely monitor how their investment is growing and performing, which could knock the business off the road.
Ways to Commission a Developer on a new Technology Project
Freelancer
Freelancer.com is currently the worlds largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace on the web. They are connecting over 20 million employers and freelancers globally. The way it works is through their marketplace, employers can post their project and freelancers will sign up to take part, they will offer a price and the employer can decide to accept. The employers can check the profiles of these freelancers including their reviews, and skills, the employers can also message using live chat, to find out more about their potential freelancer, and then make a final decision.
During the project, the employers can either pay the freelancer upon completion, or pay the freelancer per hour, or use milestone payments, for example if the freelancer was to make a video game character, the milestone payments could be modelling, rigging, texturing then animating. Location can vary but the freelancer will most likely stay where they are, using their own PC they are more likely to get things done faster and of higher quality.
PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour.com is another popular freelancing site that is primarily based in the UK, in the last 3 years they have hosted over 600,000 jobs and £40 million has been earned by their Freelancers.
To get going there’s a few things you can do, if you were employers you would post your own job up and sit back while the freelancer offers come to you. Another method as an employer that you can do it browse the freelancer list and contact one directly, for example is a certain freelancer was recommended to you by another person, you can send a job offer to them and only them, you can message each other and the job can be accepted, although this function is only useful if you know who you’re looking for.
All the messaging and payments are done in one place, and there’s always customer services on standby just in case and employer and freelancer have some sort of dispute. PeoplePerHour aim to keep both the employer and the freelancer satisfied at the end of the project.
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