July 23, 2024 • 49 mins
Do you need funding for your business but loathe the idea of giving up a piece of your company to someone else?
I get it. You built this baby with your own two hands, most likely giving up nights, weekends, early mornings, and time with your friends and family to do it. So the idea of handing over part of that to someone who wasn’t sweating it out with you might make you feel pretty uncomfortable.
The good news is, you don’t have to. There are other funding options that can provide the financial support you need without compromising your ownership.
Today, I’m talking with Lena West, founding director of CEO Rising, about non-dilutive funding, which is funding where you don’t give away any equity or ownership stake in your business.
Specifically, we’re going to dig into crowdfunding. As an agency or consulting firm owner, you might think crowdfunding could never be for you. But Lena has walked multiple clients through successful crowdfunding campaigns, and you might be surprised how applicable it could be to your business. Join us as we dig into the ins, outs, how-tos, and bewares of crowdfunding for service-based businesses.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
- How crowdsourcing changes the conversation about incentives, growth, and rewards from traditional investment sources
- How traditional VC or angel investor models actually harm businesses owned by marginalized people
- Why you should think of crowdfunding as a large-scale marketing project and develop high-quality assets accordingly
- How to develop a campaign when you’re not selling a tangible product
- Essential considerations before, during, and after your campaign
- Other potential avenues for non-dilutive funding for your business
Learn more about Lena West:
Learn more about me, Susan Boles:
We value your thoughts and feedback. Feel free to share them with Susan here. Your input is not just valuable, it's crucial in shaping future episodes.
Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susan Boles (00:00):
Want some funding for your business but kind of
hate the idea of giving away apiece of your company to someone
else? Yeah. Me too. I mean, youbuilt this baby with your bare
hands. You worked earlymornings, weekends, around, or
maybe even at your kids' soccergames.
And the idea of just handingpart of that over to someone who
has no sweat in the game mightmake you feel a little bit
(00:24):
furious. So, don't. There areother options, and we're gonna
talk about them. I'm your host,Susan Boles, and this is Beyond
Margins, the show where todaywe're geeking out about
crowdfunding. Right now on theshow, we're in the middle of a
(00:45):
series talking about all thedifferent options for getting
outside funding for your servicebusiness.
In the last episode, we coveredtaking equity investments in
your business. It's a greatoption for folks where it's a
good fit, but it's not the onlyoption and, quite honestly,
probably not even your bestoption. I'm talking to Lena West
(01:05):
who is the founding director ofCEO Rising, the first of its
kind incubatoraccelerator hybriddedicated to providing service
based businesses with the 3growth tools that they need
most, coaching, community, andcash, so they can build ethical,
profitable, and sustainablebusinesses. And we're talking
(01:25):
about non dilutive funding,which is just a fancy way of
saying funding where you don'tgive away any equity or
ownership in your business.We're specifically doing a deep
dive on crowdfunding today, butwe get pretty spicy about
traditional equity funding andwhy you might not want to choose
that as an option.
So, if you listened to the lastepisode on taking equity
(01:46):
funding, here is the flip sideof that coin. Lena has walked
multiple clients through thecrowdfunding process, and we
geek out about the ins, outs,and how to's of creating a great
crowdfunding campaign and thethings to think about and to
watch out for while you're doingit. If you're an agency or
consulting firm owner, you mightbe sitting there thinking that
(02:09):
this isn't an option for you orit's not accessible, but you
might be surprised howapplicable it might be. I know I
was. Okay.
So you have helped severalclients through the process of
(02:30):
using crowdfunding as a means toget capital in their business,
and I think this is an optionthat most folks probably think
isn't necessarily accessible tothem. So can you kind of just
give me a general overview ofwhy someone with a service
business might think about goingthis route versus another
direction or just that theyshould consider this as an
(02:53):
option?
Lena West (02:55):
Susan, that is a loaded question. First of all,
thank you for so much for havingme on. That is a loaded question
because I am passionate aboutthis topic. Because I really
feel like diluted funding hashad its heyday. It got us here.
We're grateful. And by dilutedfunding, I mean, like, VC
(03:17):
funding, angel funding,etcetera. Right? I feel like
it's had its heyday. It got uswhere where we are here today.
I do not think that it isethical for me to say, hey,
Susan. Here's some money. And,oh, by the way, give me half of
your company or give me 30% ofthe company that you have been
(03:40):
working the past 10 years orhowever many years to build.
Right? And I I I also believethat in it is this kernel of
homestead holdout, if you will.
This kernel of, hey, UVCcompanies. Hey, you angel
companies that wanna fund me.You've told me for years that my
(04:01):
service based business not onlywasn't scalable, but also wasn't
investment worthy. And now thatyou see that it is, now you
wanna give me money? Yeah.
No. Thanks. Keep that sameenergy. Right? Keep that same
energy.
And what I'm gonna do is I'mgonna build the funding over
here in a way that works for me.And what I love about
(04:23):
crowdsourcing is it gives youoptions to reward and pay back
your funders in a way that'smeaningful to them, whether
that's return of funds orwhether that's something else.
So if you're crowdfunding afilm, for example, there's
credits, there's all sorts of,you know, other, options that
(04:45):
you can how you can pay back.But I feel like this
crowdsourcing and non dilutivefunding options are ways for
service based businesses to say,yeah. You don't get to offer me
fiat currency and take 30% of myvision.
Susan Boles (05:03):
I love that. I think you are
Lena West (05:06):
I'm a bit of a rebel.
Susan Boles (05:08):
No. I think it's really, it's a unique
perspective, but one that wereally need to listen to.
Particularly for service basedbusiness owners, our heart and
souls are going into buildingthese businesses. Frequently,
they start out as us justselling essentially our time or
(05:29):
ourselves or our brand toclients and then thinking about
handing that off to somebody whohad no, you know, no currency in
building it. They didn't investanything except their, you know,
fat cats who have a bunch ofmoney to throw around feels
(05:50):
deeply unfair.
Lena West (05:53):
It's reductive is what it is. Yep. It says my
money that I have oodles of thatI'm sitting on piles of
outweighs your blood, sweat, andtears for the past 10 years or
the past however many years,outweighs the sacrifices that
you've made in your life andwith your family, not being
there, missing games if you'vegot children, missing events
(06:16):
with your partner, missingtravel with your partner,
whatever. Right? It's reductive.
And to me, it's transactional.And listen, I get that there are
some players in the space thatare trying to make funding
available for all. I get that.And I'm not saying that that's a
bad thing. I'm saying the timefor that is kind of over, and we
(06:39):
need to be exploring otheroptions because other options
are there.
And, I mean, I worked on oneKickstarter campaign. I can't
say the name, but the goal wasaround a 100,000, and they were
able to raise 5 times that. Andall without having to promise
more of the company for 5 timesthe money. You understand?
Susan Boles (07:02):
Right.
Lena West (07:02):
Right? So if you go back and you look at that from a
VC angel perspective, like atraditional funding perspective,
if you give me 5 times themoney, well, then the cap table
changes. In this instance,there's no cap table change.
Susan Boles (07:18):
Well and that also taking things like VC money kind
of misaligns the incentives. Ifyou are someone who is growing
your company with a specific setof values For a lot of my folks,
the people that listen, a lot ofthat is calm. We're trying to
(07:39):
build calmer companies that isinherently misaligned with the
expectations of taking somethinglike VC funding where it forces
you to have to focus andprioritize exponential growth,
and that might not be the bestor most sustainable thing for
your company. Whereascrowdsourcing, crowdfunding
(08:00):
allows you to offer theincentives that feel genuinely
aligned to both your audienceand to you as a founder.
Lena West (08:10):
Yes. Typically, people who will invest in
crowdsourcing, and they willgive through the crowdsourced
funding, they know that it's aniterative process. And so
there's more leniency. There'smore understanding. There's more
grace of, hey.
We didn't meet this windowbecause x y z happened, and so
this is our next thing. And it'snot like you're being grilled
(08:34):
over hot coals to produce. So Iwas on the board of a company
that received traditionalfunding. It was prerevenue, very
well known VC company. They,gave this company funding
knowing they were pre revenueand knowing they were pre
(08:56):
product market fit.
The moment they gave them themoney, it turned into show us
your receipts for the pastmonth.
Susan Boles (09:08):
Wow.
Lena West (09:09):
In other words, it wasn't like 6 months had passed
and said, okay, Now show us whatkind of revenue you're
generating. It was literally thenext meeting of the board was
show us your revenues thatyou've collected for this
service. And they gave them themoney knowing that they were
prerevenue and knowing that theywere pre product market fit. And
(09:31):
what I mean to tell you, thatthis woman was harangued by the
VC company that gave her themoney for weekly reports, for
monthly updates, for expectedmonthly revenue streams to the
point where she and her husbandalmost got divorced. Now the
(09:53):
other kicker of this is rememberI I mentioned a moment ago, when
you're working with crowdsourcefunds, people tend to be more
lenient.
They're they understand it's aniterative process. Okay. The
company that gave this personthe funding, this company the
funding, they, how should I say,pride themselves on saying that
(10:17):
they understand the smallbusiness and that they
understand the, quote, unquote,working woman. I'm just gonna
leave it there.
Susan Boles (10:26):
Sorry. That makes me.
Lena West (10:29):
Exactly. Like I said, I'm gonna be kind. I'm not even
gonna un I'm not even gonna getinto that. Right? I'm not even
gonna get into that.
The working woman. Okay? Andwhen this person told her
funders that she was havingsome, childcare issues and some
challenges, she was summarilytold that sounds like it's a
(10:53):
personal problem, and thatdoesn't have any place at this
board meeting.
Susan Boles (10:59):
I hate every bit of that. Every part of that.
Lena West (11:03):
Bit of it is toxic garbage dumpster fire on trash.
Like, it's just bad. And listen,you can dress it up however you
like as you know, but we makesure, you know, 80% of our
funding goes to, you know, womenof color or LGBTQIA listen.
That's all great. I am all forthat.
(11:25):
I want my folks to get moremoney. I truly do. Okay. But if
you're also doing it in the sameway that it's been done, doesn't
make it less predatory. In fact,it makes it more predatory.
Susan Boles (11:40):
It is so frustrating that on the surface,
the diversity initiatives ofsome of these funds, right, they
have realized that fundingcishet white finance bros from
the tech industry maybe isn'ttheir best bet, and that, you
(12:01):
know, companies led by womenfrequently actually perform
better. It just makes me reallymad that even though they've
made this realization, they arenot building that into any of
their funding process. They'renot taking into account any of
the realities of being a, quote,unquote, working woman, that
(12:27):
you've just taken the good oldboy bro system and slapped a,
you know, a sticker on the frontof it that says now now here for
diversity.
Lena West (12:39):
It's shrinking and pink it all over again. And
also, see, I'm a little bit of aharder nose on this. And the
hard nose that I have on this isthis. A moment ago, funding
TransFounders wasn't your thing.But now that it's cool, you get
to come and talk about howyou're funding TransFounders,
(13:02):
and you expect us now to begrateful.
I feel like it's, it's givingperformance. It's giving
opportunistic. Yeah. It'sgiving, we we go wherever the
money is. We go wherever wethink we can, not even make the
most impact, but get the mostpats on the back for doing what
(13:25):
we needed to have been doing inthe first place.
Susan Boles (13:28):
Yeah. For sure.
Lena West (13:29):
The fact that the trans community is investment
worthy now means it wasinvestment worthy then.
Susan Boles (13:36):
Yeah. That it always has been.
Lena West (13:38):
Always has been. So let's stop playing these games.
And I would have so much morerespect for VC funds and angel
funds if they would just say wewere shortsighted. We probably
missed out on some really goodcompanies that we could fund.
(13:59):
But no.
Like, I forget who it was rightnow and I wanna give
attribution. Please charge it tomy head and not to my heart. The
woman who went for funding andshe said, they told her, hey
they literally said the words toher. Hey, your company is great,
but we already funded a blackbusiness this year.
Susan Boles (14:20):
What? Yeah. Okay. Tamping down my rage. Just
pushing The rage.
Pushing the
Lena West (14:30):
rage. The rage. And and so now do you see why I'm
always on this soapbox? BecauseI'm like, there's so much.
There's so much.
Susan Boles (14:40):
So this is a little off topic, but I am interested
in your perspective of some ofthe new newer funding companies,
things like Arlan Hamilton'sBackstage Capital. Do you feel
like they are different, orthey're just a different brand
(15:01):
of the same structures, sameincentives.
Lena West (15:07):
Now let me just say this. I don't know anything
about Arlen's deal or dealstructure at all. I really
don't. I have no knowledge ofthat whatsoever. What I will say
is if anything looks like a duckand quacks like a duck, then
it's a duck.
If the deal structure isn't adeparture from the traditional
(15:30):
structure, then it's traditionalstructure. It's, you know, it's
the slapped on. Again, I willsay, I don't know anything about
Arlen's deal structure at all.I'd I've never spoken to Arlen.
I was a member of their, groupextremely briefly, for a little
short period of time, but that II still don't know anything
(15:51):
about their deal structure.
But I will say anything that issimilar in structure to
traditional VC deals and angeldeals, anything that's similar,
even though it might beinclusive and even
intersectionally so, to me to medoes more harm than giving the
(16:13):
money to the tech bros.
Susan Boles (16:15):
Okay. Say a little bit more about that because now
you have me intrigued.
Lena West (16:21):
If you are applying that that same old model, that
extracted model, but now you'reapplying it to traditionally and
historically marginalizedpeople, you're doing more harm
than if you apply that model toa white cishet bro.
Susan Boles (16:36):
And do you think there are any circumstances or
types of business where youshould be looking at VC funding
and angel capital at dilutivestructures? Or are you you think
in all cases, it's somethingthat for the most part, if you
(16:57):
can't avoid, you should?
Lena West (16:59):
I think the latter. If you can avoid it, you you
should. And every single personI know who has come out of the
other side of a successful orunsuccessful fundraise has said
the exact same thing. Now I'mjust one person but I've been
doing this work for 17 years.I've seen a few things.
(17:19):
And I've talked to a bunch ofpeople who have gone through
traditional funding. And like Isaid, not all of them are
nightmare stories about, youknow, abusive, that's an that
that kind of a thing in boardsin board seats and board
takeovers. Not every one endslike that. Some of them, even
the ones that end successfullyand they have a successful, you
(17:41):
know, they whether they IPO ornot, that's, you know, that's
that's a different story. Butthe funding goes smoothly.
No issues. They still say, if Icould have avoided that, I
would.
Susan Boles (17:54):
It makes sense to me.
Lena West (17:57):
I think the the circumstances under which a
company needs to be seeking VCor angel funding, so dilutive
funding, extractive funding isextremely narrow, and most
companies don't meet thatcriteria.
Susan Boles (18:13):
And, I mean, it is inherently I think extractive is
the best way to put it is thatthe point of the investors, the
reason they are investing is toextract the value from whatever
this company has either producedor their IP or their ideas or
(18:35):
their business model. The pointof investing is to be able to
extract the value from thatinvestment and take it and
leave. There the incentives areinherently not aligned to build
something more sustainable or tobuild something even long term
that has longevity. It is to getin, get the value, and get out.
Lena West (19:00):
And I think what a lot of founders don't understand
is that that's what you give up.You give up the autonomy. You
give up the vision. You give upthe ability to even execute
towards your vision if they deemthat this company isn't growing
fast enough. Like you said,exponentially.
It's not doing what we thoughtit was gonna do, so this is what
(19:22):
we need to do. We need to shiftgears, and you've gotta follow
suit because, hello, that's partof your deal stack.
Susan Boles (19:29):
That's part of what we agreed to when we created
this this, deal. Okay. So let'slet's shift a little bit from,
the reasons you wouldn't want totake investment and shift a
little bit more towards whatcrowdsourcing could potentially
(19:51):
look like. Somebody has boughtin on, I don't want to dilute my
funding, but I do need externalsources of funds. Right.
Let's shift towards thinkingabout what types of
crowdsourcing or crowdfundingare actually an option and what
that might look like forsomebody who is potentially
(20:12):
considering going this
Lena West (20:14):
route? There's all sorts of platforms where you can
I mean, Kickstarter, we all knowabout that? But there's also,
vertical specific crowdfunding,options out there. There's one
again, my brain is playing thetrick on me. That's for CPG
brands, that's specific to CPGbrands, like beauty brands and
(20:34):
such.
So I would say the first thingthat you wanna do is give
yourself more time than youthink you need because there's a
process here. Right? On thesurface, it's not as linear as
the traditional funding processonly because we haven't had the
(20:56):
level of experience that we'vehad with crowdsourcing, volume
experience with, crowdfunding aswe have had with VC. So, like,
you know, you go, you do yourpitch deck, and you're like, we
all know that that's the storywith traditional funding. What I
love about crowdsourced fundingis it allows you to be way more
(21:18):
creative, not just in what youpay back and rewards, but also
in how you present what you haveto offer.
So I really believe inmultimedia using commercials,
using videos, and that stuff tobe done well and to get buy in
takes time. That's the firstthing. If you know you want
(21:40):
funding, don't don't boxyourself in. Don't box yourself
into oh I'm gonna launch thiscrowdfunding campaign in 30 days
wrong wrong Don't do it toyourself. Right?
Give yourself the time you needto develop the marketing assets
that you need. Work with someonewho works in branding. Work with
(22:04):
someone who writes copy forcrowdfunding campaigns. Like,
there are literally copywriters.All they do is crowdfunding
campaigns.
There are literallyvideographers who only produce
video for crowdfundingcampaigns. That is all they do.
Seek those professionals out andwork with them because it makes
(22:27):
a difference.
Susan Boles (22:28):
Yeah. Totally. I mean, essentially, this is a big
marketing project. That's thewhole thing is just you taking
on the marketing end.
Lena West (22:35):
It's a huge marketing project. And in some instances,
it's a little harder than the VCroute because at least with the
VC route, you gotta, like, makea couple people happy.
Kickstarter or crowdfunding, yougotta make a bunch of people
happy.
Susan Boles (22:53):
It's definitely a volume game.
Lena West (22:55):
Right. You gotta appeal to a bunch of people.
It's a different vibe. And so itneeds be approached differently.
And so give yourself time to getthose ducks in a row, to get the
production value up, to give thething that you worked so hard
for, the the light it deserves,the highlighting it deserves,
(23:16):
the visibility it deserves, thecare it deserves to present it
in the way that it makes it mostattractive.
The first thing I see peopletrying to do is you're trying to
rush it.
Susan Boles (23:30):
This is something where you need to be spending
time and attention and take iton as a separate project. So
(24:25):
kind of take me through what atypical crowdfunding process or
crowdfunding project mightactually look like. So if you're
planning on doing this, what arethe kinds of things that you
need to be planning for andtaking into consideration as
part of that overall process?
Lena West (24:42):
So first of all, what are you doing? Like, what's the
goal? Where are you going withthis? And what are the use of
funds going to be? Right?
This sounds traditional already.Right? The prep is almost the
same. Right? What are you doing?
How much do you want and why doyou want it? Right? What are you
gonna use the monies for? Howmuch of those funds are padding,
(25:05):
so cushion margin, and how muchof it is, like, actual dollars
spent that you're you'replanning to spend, and how much
of that is, you know, runway sothat you can have a little bit
of room. Right?
That's the first thing is tofigure out what your goals are.
And then especially for servicebased businesses, what's the
positioning? What is the thingthat you're promising? What is
(25:28):
the outcome? What is the thingthat you're going to do?
What is the outcome? The thingthat you're building, what is
it? And can people understandit?
Susan Boles (25:37):
I think this is probably the part where for
service based businesses, theyhave the hardest time
envisioning what that could be.Right? Traditionally,
Kickstarter, you know, you'redoing something for a product
that you're gonna deliver, or,there's a there's a tangible
thing. But for a lot of servicebased businesses, that's not
(25:59):
necessarily true. So help mekind of envision what a
Kickstarter campaign might looklike for somebody in a service
business.
Lena West (26:10):
You know how they say you've gotta productize your
service? You've gotta productizethe vision. You've gotta
productize the vision for theservice, which is why I always
recommend multimedia. I alwaysrecommend video of some sort or
models or drawings or somethingbecause it helps people to
create a mental picture of whatit is that they're funding or
(26:31):
potentially funding. Right?
Here's a really good example.Let's say you are crowdfunding
for an organization that helpsentrepreneurs. Let's just say
that. Just a general kind oforganization. We'll keep it
really simple.
You don't wanna say, well, we'recrowdfunding for an organization
that helps entrepreneurs. Youwanna have interviews with
(26:56):
entrepreneurs that have beenthrough your program before.
Maybe not in this iteration thatyou're funding for, but that
have worked with you before, andand video interviews, ideally.
Right? You wanna figure out whatis the message that we wanna
send forth?
What does our b roll look likein this video? What are we
trying to express about thisparticular crowdfunding
(27:19):
campaign? What is the emotion?Because people buy based on
emotion, they commit based onemotion. What is the emotion
that we want to evoke?
I like to tell the clients thatI work with at this level. I'll
say, listen, I want you toimagine that you're making a
documentary film about yourservice. That's the mind state I
want you to be in that you'remaking a mini doc about your
(27:43):
service. What are you saying?What is the what's the feeling
that you're evoking?
And then at the end, what's theaction step? And what are what's
the emotion or emotions thatyou're going to, evoke to get
them to take action? Listen. Weall laugh about the Sally
Struthers commercials, you know,feed a child, but it evokes it
(28:08):
it created the emotion and itworks. Yeah.
It created the emotion thatpeople wanted. And at the end of
that long infomercial, it waslike, how can I not give? That's
where you want people to be. Soit's a combination of assets,
vision, creativity, and beingable to productize your vision
(28:32):
so that people can actually seethe thing. This saved my
relationship.
This saved my life. I feelhealthier, whatever the service
is you then get to have thiskind of three-dimensional
experience of your service. Andthat is so important. So I would
say start with how much do youwanna raise. Start with what is
(28:55):
the vision.
How can you productize thevision. Figure out what assets
you're going to need. Right?Actual assets and then, like,
what I call b roll assets. Andliterally, that's b roll.
And then also other things like,screenshots that you might have,
actual models of yourmethodology, of your process,
(29:16):
visual models. And then theother piece is always think of
it as before, during, and after.So there's the prep, the before.
There's the during, And you needto carve out time to pay
attention to that thing. Peoplethink you can just set up this
campaign and, like, oh, it'sjust gonna run on its own.
People are gonna be asking youquestions. And if you don't
answer, then that breeds doubt.Because if you're not here to
(29:41):
answer the questions during thecampaign, well, then what are
you gonna do when you get mymoney? Right? That's the
supposition.
So you need to carve out time tojust have someone from your
team, whether it's you orsomeone, in there answering
questions as people askquestions, as people submit
questions. You also wanna carveout time for iterating. So,
(30:03):
like, okay, we've been doingthis a week and we haven't
gotten a dime. Like, what are wegonna do now? How are we gonna
change this?
How's our marketing gonnachange? Do we need to buy ads?
Like, what what needs to happenso that we get the visibility
for this that we need? Becauseright now, traction isn't
tractioning. Okay?
Yep. It's just not happening.And then there's the after,
(30:26):
which I think people also forgetabout. They forget about the
during and the after. They'reall about the prep, which is
great, but the after is also,for crying out loud, say thank
you.
For crying out loud, make avideo thanking your people who
invested in you. For crying outloud, give people a roadmap of,
(30:47):
okay, so now here's what you canexpect next. As people give to
the campaign, make sure there'sa video that goes to them and
said, thank you so much. Here'swhat we're going to do now. Our
fundraise closes on this date.
Here's what we're gonna do afterthe week after that, the week
after that, the week after that.And these are the milestones at
which you will hear from us.Create a visual for that so
(31:09):
people can see what that lookslike. Create a timeline visual
for that. Once you're at the endof that, don't disappear and
just put them on some newsletterlist.
Give back to those people.Right? You know what? Here's
what we're gonna do for you. Yougave us funding last year.
(31:29):
Thank you so much. You believedin us. We are proud to report
that our service is doing sowell. And, oh, by the way, we
want you to come to this freeworkshop. I just sent an email
out to people who have beensitting on my mailing list
waiting for me to launch thisincubator, for service based
businesses.
And at literally the subjectline of the email is there's
(31:52):
nothing for sale in this email.That was the subject line. And I
wanna say the open rate was 62%.
Susan Boles (32:01):
It's not not too shabby.
Lena West (32:03):
Not too shabby. Right? Because you wanna thank
people. They've been waitingaround on you to get your act
together and to get this goingalready, and you wanna thank
people and you don't wannaforget about people and just
dump them on some email listsomewhere. So I would say those
are the kind of rough steps.
Susan Boles (32:20):
And talk to me a little bit about what people
should think about in terms oftimeline and in terms of
financial investment to actuallydo a crowdsourcing campaign
well?
Lena West (32:35):
I would say this is least 6 months. At least 6
months.
Susan Boles (32:42):
And is that before it launches, or that's the the
whole time frame?
Lena West (32:48):
I would say you could do it in the whole time frame if
you have more money than time,which typically if you're
crowdsourcing, you don't. Butsometimes you do because you
just don't wanna go the dilutiveroute, and you're like, I wanna
go I I you, like, sometimes thathappens. I would say give it at
least 6 months. Typically, 9months a year is good, which
(33:13):
includes a whole lot ofplanning, a whole lot of being
able to iterate with your brandpeople and get the copy dialed
in, a whole lot of creatingassets that you'll need
throughout, and more time tojust plan things out so that you
don't feel like you're rushed atthe last minute. I encourage
people to treat theircrowdfunding campaign like a a a
(33:38):
separate client.
In other words, if you'resomeone who's a consultant and
you have spaces to work with 5clients and you decide to do a
crowdfunding, well, now you'vegot space to work for 4 clients,
and the 5th client is you inyour crowdfunding campaign.
Susan Boles (33:53):
Right? That makes sense.
Lena West (33:55):
So that's the energy I feel like people should make
available to it. And as far asinvestment, I would say plan on
a low figure 5 a a low 5 figureinvestment, especially if you're
gonna do video production andhire a copywriter and branding
and such, like, these things addup. If not, if you're a good
writer and you've got a friendwho's a videographer, then you
(34:18):
might look at, you might look ata a high 4 figure investment.
Susan Boles (34:24):
Does existing audience size play a role in
what folks can expect to raiseout of a crowd funding campaign.
Or even if you have a smallaudience, you can buy ads or
other there are other ways tomake sure you hit your funding
targets.
Lena West (34:42):
There are definitely other ways for you to make sure
that you hit your funding goalswhen you're crowdfunding.
However, existing audience makesit so much easier, especially
when you can plan. This is whatI mean by having the time.
Because it's not just aboutlaunching the the campaign
itself, the crowdfundingcampaign. It's also about
(35:02):
engaging your existing audienceto be part of the the group that
is invested in the, you know, inthe campaign and engaged in the
campaign.
It's literally you saying toyour existing audience, we're
about to do something really bigand planning and saying, hey.
We're gonna do an informationalwebinar, or we're gonna do an
(35:23):
informational training for justthe people who are on our list,
for just the people who arealready in our orbit to let you
know, hey. This is where we'regoing. This is the vision. K.
This is our goal. This is whatwe're looking to raise. This is
how we're gonna go about it.We're open to your ideas. Do you
have any questions?
What that then allows you to dois it allows you to have almost
(35:48):
like a case study group. And itallows you to figure out, okay,
what are the questions thatpeople have so we can put that
on our crowdfunding page. And itallows you to take that
information that you get fromthat particular session and
prepave. So then whencrowdfunding actually launches,
(36:08):
you don't have to iterate somuch.
Susan Boles (36:12):
Right. So it's like a little baby a little baby
iteration before the real thing.Do you then envision seeing
using, these folks? I've heardit called like a street team for
people who, it's kind of theequivalent for, like, when
people are watching a book. Alot of the times they'll have
beta readers, so they'll haveboots on the ground, people that
(36:32):
are helping, kind of grassrootspromote the thing.
Do you often see themrepurposing these folks in that
same way?
Lena West (36:41):
Absolutely. You can. I mean, it's all up to, you
know, use the the technology toyour advantage. Right? So
whatever mailing list you'reusing, have it be a one click
opt in to, like, hey.
You're our straight team. Youknow? You're you're part of our
boots on the ground. You'reambassadors, whatever you wanna
call them. Right?
To me, it's not about the sizeof the list. It's about how
(37:03):
engaged your people are. So I'lltake a 1,000 engaged people over
10,000 people that are like,I've got a 4% open rate.
Susan Boles (37:11):
No. That makes sense. So as they're going
through this process, I know youmentioned that, people
underestimate how long it'sgonna take. Yes, they do. Are
there other places where peoplegoing through this process get
tripped up or end up beingharder than they expect it to
be?
Lena West (37:32):
Yes. When it comes to the actual deliverable part of
it. So let's say you decide,okay, we're gonna crowdfund for
a film. We're filmmakers, andwe're gonna crowdfund for a
film, And we're going to giveeveryone, who invests at x level
a preview. You're herding cats.
(37:54):
You gotta get everyone availableon the same day. And when you
don't, then it's well, is therea replay? And how do I still see
it before everyone else? Like,it's a whole thing. So you wanna
have all of that stuff organizedas much as humanly possible.
I would say the deliverables iswhere things can get hairy,
especially if you're promisingmerch that goes along with your
(38:16):
service. If you're promisingmerch, you're dealing with the
postal service or whoever yourshipper or whoever you're using
to ship your stuff. It's a wholeother thing. I think people
think that that stuff is justgonna be easy and it's not. They
think that those actions oh, I'mjust gonna be able to do that.
(38:37):
Yeah. Well, not so much. Right?The other thing is I would not
use the money right away.Sometimes I mean, this happens
before the payout happens onmost crowdfunding platforms
anyway.
But sometimes crowdfundingplatforms can't collect. Like,
(38:57):
Kickstarter has a 7 daycollection window. Every
platform is different.Kickstarter has a 7 day
collection window in whichthey're like, alright. You
promised this thing.
Now we're gonna collect and, youknow, they will not extend that
window. It's 7 days. That's it.That's all you got. Right?
So people underestimate theyoverestimate what they actually
(39:18):
are gonna get. Now if yourcampaign, like my client's
campaign, is running at 5 x,then you probably don't have to
worry about that. But if you'rerunning kinda neck and neck with
the goal, you wanna be reallycareful that you leave room and
margin for the fact that they'renot gonna be able to collect on
some people.
Susan Boles (39:37):
Oh, I hadn't thought about that. I guess
common sense. Maybe it's notcommon sense there. Like, you
kind of assume that if peoplehave pledged this, they're gonna
be able to collect. No.
Lena West (39:49):
No. So
Susan Boles (39:49):
I guess not so much.
Lena West (39:52):
And listen. It's not because people wanna screw you
over or people are malicious oranything like that. It's just
people have really goodintentions, and then, like, life
happens. You know, things happenin their lives, and they're not
able to maintain the commitment.So I would say if it's hair thin
there, you wanna make sure thatyou're not, overestimating what
(40:14):
you can collect.
Susan Boles (40:16):
So on the other side of the coin, are there
things that would make theprocess easier, either resources
or assets, things that should becreated, ways that you should be
thinking about structuring yourcampaign or your deliverables
that makes the process goeasier, smoother, simpler?
Lena West (40:36):
I would say if you can work with somebody who
writes copies specifically forthese campaigns, If you can work
with videographers or multimediaproduction artists that work
specifically with crowdfundingcampaigns, do that. I would say
be really clear about the teamyou need to make this happen. I
(40:59):
can't underscore that enough.Right? Do not underestimate who
you're going to need to makethis happen because all of those
things make a difference.
All of those elements make adifference. And someone who has
done a bunch of crowdfunding, abunch of promotional videos for
crowdfunding campaigns, they'regonna be able to fast track it
(41:21):
for you. They're gonna be ableto say, oh, no. You don't wanna
do this. You wanna do this.
You want this. You want this.This is how we show this
visually. They're just gonna beable to fast track it for you in
a way that a maybe possibly atraditional videographer may
not. So team is gonna be superimportant.
Copy is gonna be superimportant. Being able to
translate your vision to visualsis super important because so
(41:45):
often, as you say, it's hard forsomeone to visualize a service
based business that, you know,you can't kind of imagine it.
And having a checklist of thethings that you need, treating
this like a legit projectbecause it is.
Susan Boles (42:03):
It is. Yeah.
Lena West (42:04):
Project management. Huge.
Susan Boles (42:07):
Okay. So other than crowdfunding, are there other
funding options that you thinkservice based businesses should
be considering when they'rethinking about funding their
business?
Lena West (42:19):
Absolutely. Grants, fellowships, stipends,
entrepreneur in residenceprograms, all of those.
Susan Boles (42:30):
Interesting. Are there specific places or
circumstances where you thinkcertain types of businesses fit
with certain types of fundingoptions or folks should be
exploring these optionsregardless?
Lena West (42:47):
I feel like if you've decided we're going to go the
non dilutive funding route, butwe do need funding, then a
portion of your day or yourweek, depending upon how urgent
the need for funding is, needsto be dedicated towards finding
those funding sources andapplying. Sometimes the
application is like, hey, fillthis out, tell us a bit about
your business, you know, uploadyour deck, that sort of a thing.
(43:08):
And then sometimes it's morein-depth and it requires an
interview. I filled one outrecently, with a client and it
required a Loom video. You know,it depends.
But I would say, if you know youneed funding, then carve out
time every single day. Just likeyou would if you were
prospecting, just like you wouldfor sales, carve out just like
(43:30):
you would for marketing, carveout time. If you know this is
the route that you wanna go foryour funding, carve out time to
actually find funds that fit foryou. I would also, a little
sneaky trick, if I may, share ifthere's a company in your
industry that has receivedfunding or if you know that a
(43:50):
founder has gotten some nondilutive funding, set up a
Google alert. We're a Notionshop.
So we'll set up a Google alert,and we'll create a Notion
database with our clients. Andso we'll say, listen. We missed
the application window justbecause by luck of when they
reached out to us to do thistype of work, they missed the
(44:12):
deadline. So next year, this ison your calendar. Here's the
link to the application, andthese are the assets that you're
gonna need.
Get your assets together aheadof time so that when it comes
time to apply, Bing. Now here'sthe thing. People always ask me,
Lena, does it make sense toapply right when it opens or
(44:34):
more when it closes or moretowards the middle? And I feel
like it makes more sense toapply right when they begin, and
here's why. Typically, fundingnon dilutive funding sources
like grants and fellowships andsuch, their board is reviewing
this or they've kind ofdeveloped this kind of adjunct
(44:57):
board.
And by the time they get to theend, they're like, nobody's
getting anything. I don't wannawatch one more of these videos.
I wanna go home, pass thefreaking chocolate chip cookies
already. Like, I'm done. And sothey typically make up their
mind early.
So the earlier you can apply inthe funding window, the better.
Susan Boles (45:18):
So is there anything you think we should
talk about that we haven'ttouched on yet, either around
non dilutive funding as a wholeor crowdfunding, crowdsourcing
specifically?
Lena West (45:30):
Listen. I think it's important for us to say that VC
and Angel Funding, it's not, youknow, evil and, you know, taking
over the world. I just reallyfeel like there are other
options now, and why not explorethose options? I would also add
(45:52):
that each time you decide tofill out the grant application
or fill out the application toreceive a stipend or whatever it
is, whatever non dilutivefunding is, or do a crowdfunding
campaign. Each time you decideto do that, it gets easier.
It gets better because you haveassets you can leverage. You you
(46:14):
know the ropes a little bitmore. And especially from a
grant perspective, I think ifyou're gonna go the grant route,
one of the things that you needto know is and this is no dis
for grant writers. I am notsaying that at all. Grant
writers are needed.
We need our writers. You don'thave to have a grant writer if
it's your first rodeo. Right?You can write your own grant
(46:37):
application. Typically, whatgrantors are looking for is your
use of funds.
So what are you gonna do withthe money? And they're looking
for, do you fit with the folksthat we wanna help with this
grant? Like, is there a fit?They're not looking for you to
do all the pros, and in fact,that can kinda work against you.
(47:00):
They just want you to be real.
They want you to be honest, andthey want you to be passionate
about what you're doing. They'renot looking for you to be a
grant writing expert. They'relooking for you to be you, the
founder of this thing. They'relooking for you to be
passionate, and they're alsolooking for you to have have
made some tracks on your own.They wanna see that, hey.
(47:23):
You've been doing this andyou're committed to this and not
just looking for a check.
Susan Boles (47:29):
Thank you so much for being here and for this
conversation. It was so it wasso good.
Lena West (47:35):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Susan Boles (47:38):
Where can our listeners find you if they want
to connect or learn more aboutyou or what you do?
Lena West (47:44):
They can find me on LinkedIn, and they can also find
out more about our ink. It's thefirst of its kind for service
based business owners. It is anincubator accelerator hybrid. It
is not for the tech bros. It isfor us, the service based folks,
and they can find out all ofthat information at
(48:04):
ceorising.co.
Not dot com, but dotco.
Susan Boles (48:09):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here
and for sharing with me. Ireally appreciate it.
Lena West (48:15):
Absolutely. Thank you.
Susan Boles (48:21):
Crowdfunding can be a really great option for you if
you've got a new service or aproject you're launching. I've
seen it used really successfullyto launch books, communities,
and more. Even something assmall as offering a Patreon for
your podcast or a Substack foryour newsletter is actually a
form of crowdfunding and can bea great way to supplement your
(48:41):
client revenue and diversify alittle bit. This whole theme is
talking about all different waysyou can fund your business, but
you don't have to pick all of 1or all of another. You can
pursue different types offunding and diversify where that
cash is coming from.
You can mix and match to suityour needs or to support
different products in differentways. For example, my own
(49:03):
business has lots of differenttypes of funding sources. I work
with clients as a fractional CFOand business advisor, but I also
have sponsors that I work withthat support both my podcast and
my newsletter. I work with a fewcompanies as an affiliate, and
that brings in some supplementalrevenue. But I also have a few
lines of credit that I tap intofrom time to time.
(49:23):
I have an SBA loan that I tookon when they were offering loans
directly to business ownersduring the early COVID stimulus
efforts. And that's what we'regoing to be talking about in the
next episode, using debtstrategically. So make sure you
are subscribed in your favoritepodcast player so you don't miss
that one. And if you know afellow business owner who is
(49:44):
thinking about how to fund theirown business, please share this
episode with them. I reallyappreciate it, and it helps me
get the information out to morepeople who need it.
Want some funding for your business but kind of
hate the idea of giving away apiece of your company to someone
else? Yeah. Me too. I mean, youbuilt this baby with your bare
hands. You worked earlymornings, weekends, around, or
maybe even at your kids' soccergames.
And the idea of just handingpart of that over to someone who
has no sweat in the game mightmake you feel a little bit
(00:24):
furious. So, don't. There areother options, and we're gonna
talk about them. I'm your host,Susan Boles, and this is Beyond
Margins, the show where todaywe're geeking out about
crowdfunding. Right now on theshow, we're in the middle of a
(00:45):
series talking about all thedifferent options for getting
outside funding for your servicebusiness.
In the last episode, we coveredtaking equity investments in
your business. It's a greatoption for folks where it's a
good fit, but it's not the onlyoption and, quite honestly,
probably not even your bestoption. I'm talking to Lena West
(01:05):
who is the founding director ofCEO Rising, the first of its
kind incubatoraccelerator hybriddedicated to providing service
based businesses with the 3growth tools that they need
most, coaching, community, andcash, so they can build ethical,
profitable, and sustainablebusinesses. And we're talking
(01:25):
about non dilutive funding,which is just a fancy way of
saying funding where you don'tgive away any equity or
ownership in your business.We're specifically doing a deep
dive on crowdfunding today, butwe get pretty spicy about
traditional equity funding andwhy you might not want to choose
that as an option.
So, if you listened to the lastepisode on taking equity
(01:46):
funding, here is the flip sideof that coin. Lena has walked
multiple clients through thecrowdfunding process, and we
geek out about the ins, outs,and how to's of creating a great
crowdfunding campaign and thethings to think about and to
watch out for while you're doingit. If you're an agency or
consulting firm owner, you mightbe sitting there thinking that
(02:09):
this isn't an option for you orit's not accessible, but you
might be surprised howapplicable it might be. I know I
was. Okay.
So you have helped severalclients through the process of
(02:30):
using crowdfunding as a means toget capital in their business,
and I think this is an optionthat most folks probably think
isn't necessarily accessible tothem. So can you kind of just
give me a general overview ofwhy someone with a service
business might think about goingthis route versus another
direction or just that theyshould consider this as an
(02:53):
option?
Lena West (02:55):
Susan, that is a loaded question. First of all,
thank you for so much for havingme on. That is a loaded question
because I am passionate aboutthis topic. Because I really
feel like diluted funding hashad its heyday. It got us here.
We're grateful. And by dilutedfunding, I mean, like, VC
(03:17):
funding, angel funding,etcetera. Right? I feel like
it's had its heyday. It got uswhere where we are here today.
I do not think that it isethical for me to say, hey,
Susan. Here's some money. And,oh, by the way, give me half of
your company or give me 30% ofthe company that you have been
(03:40):
working the past 10 years orhowever many years to build.
Right? And I I I also believethat in it is this kernel of
homestead holdout, if you will.
This kernel of, hey, UVCcompanies. Hey, you angel
companies that wanna fund me.You've told me for years that my
(04:01):
service based business not onlywasn't scalable, but also wasn't
investment worthy. And now thatyou see that it is, now you
wanna give me money? Yeah.
No. Thanks. Keep that sameenergy. Right? Keep that same
energy.
And what I'm gonna do is I'mgonna build the funding over
here in a way that works for me.And what I love about
(04:23):
crowdsourcing is it gives youoptions to reward and pay back
your funders in a way that'smeaningful to them, whether
that's return of funds orwhether that's something else.
So if you're crowdfunding afilm, for example, there's
credits, there's all sorts of,you know, other, options that
(04:45):
you can how you can pay back.But I feel like this
crowdsourcing and non dilutivefunding options are ways for
service based businesses to say,yeah. You don't get to offer me
fiat currency and take 30% of myvision.
Susan Boles (05:03):
I love that. I think you are
Lena West (05:06):
I'm a bit of a rebel.
Susan Boles (05:08):
No. I think it's really, it's a unique
perspective, but one that wereally need to listen to.
Particularly for service basedbusiness owners, our heart and
souls are going into buildingthese businesses. Frequently,
they start out as us justselling essentially our time or
(05:29):
ourselves or our brand toclients and then thinking about
handing that off to somebody whohad no, you know, no currency in
building it. They didn't investanything except their, you know,
fat cats who have a bunch ofmoney to throw around feels
(05:50):
deeply unfair.
Lena West (05:53):
It's reductive is what it is. Yep. It says my
money that I have oodles of thatI'm sitting on piles of
outweighs your blood, sweat, andtears for the past 10 years or
the past however many years,outweighs the sacrifices that
you've made in your life andwith your family, not being
there, missing games if you'vegot children, missing events
(06:16):
with your partner, missingtravel with your partner,
whatever. Right? It's reductive.
And to me, it's transactional.And listen, I get that there are
some players in the space thatare trying to make funding
available for all. I get that.And I'm not saying that that's a
bad thing. I'm saying the timefor that is kind of over, and we
(06:39):
need to be exploring otheroptions because other options
are there.
And, I mean, I worked on oneKickstarter campaign. I can't
say the name, but the goal wasaround a 100,000, and they were
able to raise 5 times that. Andall without having to promise
more of the company for 5 timesthe money. You understand?
Susan Boles (07:02):
Right.
Lena West (07:02):
Right? So if you go back and you look at that from a
VC angel perspective, like atraditional funding perspective,
if you give me 5 times themoney, well, then the cap table
changes. In this instance,there's no cap table change.
Susan Boles (07:18):
Well and that also taking things like VC money kind
of misaligns the incentives. Ifyou are someone who is growing
your company with a specific setof values For a lot of my folks,
the people that listen, a lot ofthat is calm. We're trying to
(07:39):
build calmer companies that isinherently misaligned with the
expectations of taking somethinglike VC funding where it forces
you to have to focus andprioritize exponential growth,
and that might not be the bestor most sustainable thing for
your company. Whereascrowdsourcing, crowdfunding
(08:00):
allows you to offer theincentives that feel genuinely
aligned to both your audienceand to you as a founder.
Lena West (08:10):
Yes. Typically, people who will invest in
crowdsourcing, and they willgive through the crowdsourced
funding, they know that it's aniterative process. And so
there's more leniency. There'smore understanding. There's more
grace of, hey.
We didn't meet this windowbecause x y z happened, and so
this is our next thing. And it'snot like you're being grilled
(08:34):
over hot coals to produce. So Iwas on the board of a company
that received traditionalfunding. It was prerevenue, very
well known VC company. They,gave this company funding
knowing they were pre revenueand knowing they were pre
(08:56):
product market fit.
The moment they gave them themoney, it turned into show us
your receipts for the pastmonth.
Susan Boles (09:08):
Wow.
Lena West (09:09):
In other words, it wasn't like 6 months had passed
and said, okay, Now show us whatkind of revenue you're
generating. It was literally thenext meeting of the board was
show us your revenues thatyou've collected for this
service. And they gave them themoney knowing that they were
prerevenue and knowing that theywere pre product market fit. And
(09:31):
what I mean to tell you, thatthis woman was harangued by the
VC company that gave her themoney for weekly reports, for
monthly updates, for expectedmonthly revenue streams to the
point where she and her husbandalmost got divorced. Now the
(09:53):
other kicker of this is rememberI I mentioned a moment ago, when
you're working with crowdsourcefunds, people tend to be more
lenient.
They're they understand it's aniterative process. Okay. The
company that gave this personthe funding, this company the
funding, they, how should I say,pride themselves on saying that
(10:17):
they understand the smallbusiness and that they
understand the, quote, unquote,working woman. I'm just gonna
leave it there.
Susan Boles (10:26):
Sorry. That makes me.
Lena West (10:29):
Exactly. Like I said, I'm gonna be kind. I'm not even
gonna un I'm not even gonna getinto that. Right? I'm not even
gonna get into that.
The working woman. Okay? Andwhen this person told her
funders that she was havingsome, childcare issues and some
challenges, she was summarilytold that sounds like it's a
(10:53):
personal problem, and thatdoesn't have any place at this
board meeting.
Susan Boles (10:59):
I hate every bit of that. Every part of that.
Lena West (11:03):
Bit of it is toxic garbage dumpster fire on trash.
Like, it's just bad. And listen,you can dress it up however you
like as you know, but we makesure, you know, 80% of our
funding goes to, you know, womenof color or LGBTQIA listen.
That's all great. I am all forthat.
(11:25):
I want my folks to get moremoney. I truly do. Okay. But if
you're also doing it in the sameway that it's been done, doesn't
make it less predatory. In fact,it makes it more predatory.
Susan Boles (11:40):
It is so frustrating that on the surface,
the diversity initiatives ofsome of these funds, right, they
have realized that fundingcishet white finance bros from
the tech industry maybe isn'ttheir best bet, and that, you
(12:01):
know, companies led by womenfrequently actually perform
better. It just makes me reallymad that even though they've
made this realization, they arenot building that into any of
their funding process. They'renot taking into account any of
the realities of being a, quote,unquote, working woman, that
(12:27):
you've just taken the good oldboy bro system and slapped a,
you know, a sticker on the frontof it that says now now here for
diversity.
Lena West (12:39):
It's shrinking and pink it all over again. And
also, see, I'm a little bit of aharder nose on this. And the
hard nose that I have on this isthis. A moment ago, funding
TransFounders wasn't your thing.But now that it's cool, you get
to come and talk about howyou're funding TransFounders,
(13:02):
and you expect us now to begrateful.
I feel like it's, it's givingperformance. It's giving
opportunistic. Yeah. It'sgiving, we we go wherever the
money is. We go wherever wethink we can, not even make the
most impact, but get the mostpats on the back for doing what
(13:25):
we needed to have been doing inthe first place.
Susan Boles (13:28):
Yeah. For sure.
Lena West (13:29):
The fact that the trans community is investment
worthy now means it wasinvestment worthy then.
Susan Boles (13:36):
Yeah. That it always has been.
Lena West (13:38):
Always has been. So let's stop playing these games.
And I would have so much morerespect for VC funds and angel
funds if they would just say wewere shortsighted. We probably
missed out on some really goodcompanies that we could fund.
(13:59):
But no.
Like, I forget who it was rightnow and I wanna give
attribution. Please charge it tomy head and not to my heart. The
woman who went for funding andshe said, they told her, hey
they literally said the words toher. Hey, your company is great,
but we already funded a blackbusiness this year.
Susan Boles (14:20):
What? Yeah. Okay. Tamping down my rage. Just
pushing The rage.
Pushing the
Lena West (14:30):
rage. The rage. And and so now do you see why I'm
always on this soapbox? BecauseI'm like, there's so much.
There's so much.
Susan Boles (14:40):
So this is a little off topic, but I am interested
in your perspective of some ofthe new newer funding companies,
things like Arlan Hamilton'sBackstage Capital. Do you feel
like they are different, orthey're just a different brand
(15:01):
of the same structures, sameincentives.
Lena West (15:07):
Now let me just say this. I don't know anything
about Arlen's deal or dealstructure at all. I really
don't. I have no knowledge ofthat whatsoever. What I will say
is if anything looks like a duckand quacks like a duck, then
it's a duck.
If the deal structure isn't adeparture from the traditional
(15:30):
structure, then it's traditionalstructure. It's, you know, it's
the slapped on. Again, I willsay, I don't know anything about
Arlen's deal structure at all.I'd I've never spoken to Arlen.
I was a member of their, groupextremely briefly, for a little
short period of time, but that II still don't know anything
(15:51):
about their deal structure.
But I will say anything that issimilar in structure to
traditional VC deals and angeldeals, anything that's similar,
even though it might beinclusive and even
intersectionally so, to me to medoes more harm than giving the
(16:13):
money to the tech bros.
Susan Boles (16:15):
Okay. Say a little bit more about that because now
you have me intrigued.
Lena West (16:21):
If you are applying that that same old model, that
extracted model, but now you'reapplying it to traditionally and
historically marginalizedpeople, you're doing more harm
than if you apply that model toa white cishet bro.
Susan Boles (16:36):
And do you think there are any circumstances or
types of business where youshould be looking at VC funding
and angel capital at dilutivestructures? Or are you you think
in all cases, it's somethingthat for the most part, if you
(16:57):
can't avoid, you should?
Lena West (16:59):
I think the latter. If you can avoid it, you you
should. And every single personI know who has come out of the
other side of a successful orunsuccessful fundraise has said
the exact same thing. Now I'mjust one person but I've been
doing this work for 17 years.I've seen a few things.
(17:19):
And I've talked to a bunch ofpeople who have gone through
traditional funding. And like Isaid, not all of them are
nightmare stories about, youknow, abusive, that's an that
that kind of a thing in boardsin board seats and board
takeovers. Not every one endslike that. Some of them, even
the ones that end successfullyand they have a successful, you
(17:41):
know, they whether they IPO ornot, that's, you know, that's
that's a different story. Butthe funding goes smoothly.
No issues. They still say, if Icould have avoided that, I
would.
Susan Boles (17:54):
It makes sense to me.
Lena West (17:57):
I think the the circumstances under which a
company needs to be seeking VCor angel funding, so dilutive
funding, extractive funding isextremely narrow, and most
companies don't meet thatcriteria.
Susan Boles (18:13):
And, I mean, it is inherently I think extractive is
the best way to put it is thatthe point of the investors, the
reason they are investing is toextract the value from whatever
this company has either producedor their IP or their ideas or
(18:35):
their business model. The pointof investing is to be able to
extract the value from thatinvestment and take it and
leave. There the incentives areinherently not aligned to build
something more sustainable or tobuild something even long term
that has longevity. It is to getin, get the value, and get out.
Lena West (19:00):
And I think what a lot of founders don't understand
is that that's what you give up.You give up the autonomy. You
give up the vision. You give upthe ability to even execute
towards your vision if they deemthat this company isn't growing
fast enough. Like you said,exponentially.
It's not doing what we thoughtit was gonna do, so this is what
(19:22):
we need to do. We need to shiftgears, and you've gotta follow
suit because, hello, that's partof your deal stack.
Susan Boles (19:29):
That's part of what we agreed to when we created
this this, deal. Okay. So let'slet's shift a little bit from,
the reasons you wouldn't want totake investment and shift a
little bit more towards whatcrowdsourcing could potentially
(19:51):
look like. Somebody has boughtin on, I don't want to dilute my
funding, but I do need externalsources of funds. Right.
Let's shift towards thinkingabout what types of
crowdsourcing or crowdfundingare actually an option and what
that might look like forsomebody who is potentially
(20:12):
considering going this
Lena West (20:14):
route? There's all sorts of platforms where you can
I mean, Kickstarter, we all knowabout that? But there's also,
vertical specific crowdfunding,options out there. There's one
again, my brain is playing thetrick on me. That's for CPG
brands, that's specific to CPGbrands, like beauty brands and
(20:34):
such.
So I would say the first thingthat you wanna do is give
yourself more time than youthink you need because there's a
process here. Right? On thesurface, it's not as linear as
the traditional funding processonly because we haven't had the
(20:56):
level of experience that we'vehad with crowdsourcing, volume
experience with, crowdfunding aswe have had with VC. So, like,
you know, you go, you do yourpitch deck, and you're like, we
all know that that's the storywith traditional funding. What I
love about crowdsourced fundingis it allows you to be way more
(21:18):
creative, not just in what youpay back and rewards, but also
in how you present what you haveto offer.
So I really believe inmultimedia using commercials,
using videos, and that stuff tobe done well and to get buy in
takes time. That's the firstthing. If you know you want
(21:40):
funding, don't don't boxyourself in. Don't box yourself
into oh I'm gonna launch thiscrowdfunding campaign in 30 days
wrong wrong Don't do it toyourself. Right?
Give yourself the time you needto develop the marketing assets
that you need. Work with someonewho works in branding. Work with
(22:04):
someone who writes copy forcrowdfunding campaigns. Like,
there are literally copywriters.All they do is crowdfunding
campaigns.
There are literallyvideographers who only produce
video for crowdfundingcampaigns. That is all they do.
Seek those professionals out andwork with them because it makes
(22:27):
a difference.
Susan Boles (22:28):
Yeah. Totally. I mean, essentially, this is a big
marketing project. That's thewhole thing is just you taking
on the marketing end.
Lena West (22:35):
It's a huge marketing project. And in some instances,
it's a little harder than the VCroute because at least with the
VC route, you gotta, like, makea couple people happy.
Kickstarter or crowdfunding, yougotta make a bunch of people
happy.
Susan Boles (22:53):
It's definitely a volume game.
Lena West (22:55):
Right. You gotta appeal to a bunch of people.
It's a different vibe. And so itneeds be approached differently.
And so give yourself time to getthose ducks in a row, to get the
production value up, to give thething that you worked so hard
for, the the light it deserves,the highlighting it deserves,
(23:16):
the visibility it deserves, thecare it deserves to present it
in the way that it makes it mostattractive.
The first thing I see peopletrying to do is you're trying to
rush it.
Susan Boles (23:30):
This is something where you need to be spending
time and attention and take iton as a separate project. So
(24:25):
kind of take me through what atypical crowdfunding process or
crowdfunding project mightactually look like. So if you're
planning on doing this, what arethe kinds of things that you
need to be planning for andtaking into consideration as
part of that overall process?
Lena West (24:42):
So first of all, what are you doing? Like, what's the
goal? Where are you going withthis? And what are the use of
funds going to be? Right?
This sounds traditional already.Right? The prep is almost the
same. Right? What are you doing?
How much do you want and why doyou want it? Right? What are you
gonna use the monies for? Howmuch of those funds are padding,
(25:05):
so cushion margin, and how muchof it is, like, actual dollars
spent that you're you'replanning to spend, and how much
of that is, you know, runway sothat you can have a little bit
of room. Right?
That's the first thing is tofigure out what your goals are.
And then especially for servicebased businesses, what's the
positioning? What is the thingthat you're promising? What is
(25:28):
the outcome? What is the thingthat you're going to do?
What is the outcome? The thingthat you're building, what is
it? And can people understandit?
Susan Boles (25:37):
I think this is probably the part where for
service based businesses, theyhave the hardest time
envisioning what that could be.Right? Traditionally,
Kickstarter, you know, you'redoing something for a product
that you're gonna deliver, or,there's a there's a tangible
thing. But for a lot of servicebased businesses, that's not
(25:59):
necessarily true. So help mekind of envision what a
Kickstarter campaign might looklike for somebody in a service
business.
Lena West (26:10):
You know how they say you've gotta productize your
service? You've gotta productizethe vision. You've gotta
productize the vision for theservice, which is why I always
recommend multimedia. I alwaysrecommend video of some sort or
models or drawings or somethingbecause it helps people to
create a mental picture of whatit is that they're funding or
(26:31):
potentially funding. Right?
Here's a really good example.Let's say you are crowdfunding
for an organization that helpsentrepreneurs. Let's just say
that. Just a general kind oforganization. We'll keep it
really simple.
You don't wanna say, well, we'recrowdfunding for an organization
that helps entrepreneurs. Youwanna have interviews with
(26:56):
entrepreneurs that have beenthrough your program before.
Maybe not in this iteration thatyou're funding for, but that
have worked with you before, andand video interviews, ideally.
Right? You wanna figure out whatis the message that we wanna
send forth?
What does our b roll look likein this video? What are we
trying to express about thisparticular crowdfunding
(27:19):
campaign? What is the emotion?Because people buy based on
emotion, they commit based onemotion. What is the emotion
that we want to evoke?
I like to tell the clients thatI work with at this level. I'll
say, listen, I want you toimagine that you're making a
documentary film about yourservice. That's the mind state I
want you to be in that you'remaking a mini doc about your
(27:43):
service. What are you saying?What is the what's the feeling
that you're evoking?
And then at the end, what's theaction step? And what are what's
the emotion or emotions thatyou're going to, evoke to get
them to take action? Listen. Weall laugh about the Sally
Struthers commercials, you know,feed a child, but it evokes it
(28:08):
it created the emotion and itworks. Yeah.
It created the emotion thatpeople wanted. And at the end of
that long infomercial, it waslike, how can I not give? That's
where you want people to be. Soit's a combination of assets,
vision, creativity, and beingable to productize your vision
(28:32):
so that people can actually seethe thing. This saved my
relationship.
This saved my life. I feelhealthier, whatever the service
is you then get to have thiskind of three-dimensional
experience of your service. Andthat is so important. So I would
say start with how much do youwanna raise. Start with what is
(28:55):
the vision.
How can you productize thevision. Figure out what assets
you're going to need. Right?Actual assets and then, like,
what I call b roll assets. Andliterally, that's b roll.
And then also other things like,screenshots that you might have,
actual models of yourmethodology, of your process,
(29:16):
visual models. And then theother piece is always think of
it as before, during, and after.So there's the prep, the before.
There's the during, And you needto carve out time to pay
attention to that thing. Peoplethink you can just set up this
campaign and, like, oh, it'sjust gonna run on its own.
People are gonna be asking youquestions. And if you don't
answer, then that breeds doubt.Because if you're not here to
(29:41):
answer the questions during thecampaign, well, then what are
you gonna do when you get mymoney? Right? That's the
supposition.
So you need to carve out time tojust have someone from your
team, whether it's you orsomeone, in there answering
questions as people askquestions, as people submit
questions. You also wanna carveout time for iterating. So,
(30:03):
like, okay, we've been doingthis a week and we haven't
gotten a dime. Like, what are wegonna do now? How are we gonna
change this?
How's our marketing gonnachange? Do we need to buy ads?
Like, what what needs to happenso that we get the visibility
for this that we need? Becauseright now, traction isn't
tractioning. Okay?
Yep. It's just not happening.And then there's the after,
(30:26):
which I think people also forgetabout. They forget about the
during and the after. They'reall about the prep, which is
great, but the after is also,for crying out loud, say thank
you.
For crying out loud, make avideo thanking your people who
invested in you. For crying outloud, give people a roadmap of,
(30:47):
okay, so now here's what you canexpect next. As people give to
the campaign, make sure there'sa video that goes to them and
said, thank you so much. Here'swhat we're going to do now. Our
fundraise closes on this date.
Here's what we're gonna do afterthe week after that, the week
after that, the week after that.And these are the milestones at
which you will hear from us.Create a visual for that so
(31:09):
people can see what that lookslike. Create a timeline visual
for that. Once you're at the endof that, don't disappear and
just put them on some newsletterlist.
Give back to those people.Right? You know what? Here's
what we're gonna do for you. Yougave us funding last year.
(31:29):
Thank you so much. You believedin us. We are proud to report
that our service is doing sowell. And, oh, by the way, we
want you to come to this freeworkshop. I just sent an email
out to people who have beensitting on my mailing list
waiting for me to launch thisincubator, for service based
businesses.
And at literally the subjectline of the email is there's
(31:52):
nothing for sale in this email.That was the subject line. And I
wanna say the open rate was 62%.
Susan Boles (32:01):
It's not not too shabby.
Lena West (32:03):
Not too shabby. Right? Because you wanna thank
people. They've been waitingaround on you to get your act
together and to get this goingalready, and you wanna thank
people and you don't wannaforget about people and just
dump them on some email listsomewhere. So I would say those
are the kind of rough steps.
Susan Boles (32:20):
And talk to me a little bit about what people
should think about in terms oftimeline and in terms of
financial investment to actuallydo a crowdsourcing campaign
well?
Lena West (32:35):
I would say this is least 6 months. At least 6
months.
Susan Boles (32:42):
And is that before it launches, or that's the the
whole time frame?
Lena West (32:48):
I would say you could do it in the whole time frame if
you have more money than time,which typically if you're
crowdsourcing, you don't. Butsometimes you do because you
just don't wanna go the dilutiveroute, and you're like, I wanna
go I I you, like, sometimes thathappens. I would say give it at
least 6 months. Typically, 9months a year is good, which
(33:13):
includes a whole lot ofplanning, a whole lot of being
able to iterate with your brandpeople and get the copy dialed
in, a whole lot of creatingassets that you'll need
throughout, and more time tojust plan things out so that you
don't feel like you're rushed atthe last minute. I encourage
people to treat theircrowdfunding campaign like a a a
(33:38):
separate client.
In other words, if you'resomeone who's a consultant and
you have spaces to work with 5clients and you decide to do a
crowdfunding, well, now you'vegot space to work for 4 clients,
and the 5th client is you inyour crowdfunding campaign.
Susan Boles (33:53):
Right? That makes sense.
Lena West (33:55):
So that's the energy I feel like people should make
available to it. And as far asinvestment, I would say plan on
a low figure 5 a a low 5 figureinvestment, especially if you're
gonna do video production andhire a copywriter and branding
and such, like, these things addup. If not, if you're a good
writer and you've got a friendwho's a videographer, then you
(34:18):
might look at, you might look ata a high 4 figure investment.
Susan Boles (34:24):
Does existing audience size play a role in
what folks can expect to raiseout of a crowd funding campaign.
Or even if you have a smallaudience, you can buy ads or
other there are other ways tomake sure you hit your funding
targets.
Lena West (34:42):
There are definitely other ways for you to make sure
that you hit your funding goalswhen you're crowdfunding.
However, existing audience makesit so much easier, especially
when you can plan. This is whatI mean by having the time.
Because it's not just aboutlaunching the the campaign
itself, the crowdfundingcampaign. It's also about
(35:02):
engaging your existing audienceto be part of the the group that
is invested in the, you know, inthe campaign and engaged in the
campaign.
It's literally you saying toyour existing audience, we're
about to do something really bigand planning and saying, hey.
We're gonna do an informationalwebinar, or we're gonna do an
(35:23):
informational training for justthe people who are on our list,
for just the people who arealready in our orbit to let you
know, hey. This is where we'regoing. This is the vision. K.
This is our goal. This is whatwe're looking to raise. This is
how we're gonna go about it.We're open to your ideas. Do you
have any questions?
What that then allows you to dois it allows you to have almost
(35:48):
like a case study group. And itallows you to figure out, okay,
what are the questions thatpeople have so we can put that
on our crowdfunding page. And itallows you to take that
information that you get fromthat particular session and
prepave. So then whencrowdfunding actually launches,
(36:08):
you don't have to iterate somuch.
Susan Boles (36:12):
Right. So it's like a little baby a little baby
iteration before the real thing.Do you then envision seeing
using, these folks? I've heardit called like a street team for
people who, it's kind of theequivalent for, like, when
people are watching a book. Alot of the times they'll have
beta readers, so they'll haveboots on the ground, people that
(36:32):
are helping, kind of grassrootspromote the thing.
Do you often see themrepurposing these folks in that
same way?
Lena West (36:41):
Absolutely. You can. I mean, it's all up to, you
know, use the the technology toyour advantage. Right? So
whatever mailing list you'reusing, have it be a one click
opt in to, like, hey.
You're our straight team. Youknow? You're you're part of our
boots on the ground. You'reambassadors, whatever you wanna
call them. Right?
To me, it's not about the sizeof the list. It's about how
(37:03):
engaged your people are. So I'lltake a 1,000 engaged people over
10,000 people that are like,I've got a 4% open rate.
Susan Boles (37:11):
No. That makes sense. So as they're going
through this process, I know youmentioned that, people
underestimate how long it'sgonna take. Yes, they do. Are
there other places where peoplegoing through this process get
tripped up or end up beingharder than they expect it to
be?
Lena West (37:32):
Yes. When it comes to the actual deliverable part of
it. So let's say you decide,okay, we're gonna crowdfund for
a film. We're filmmakers, andwe're gonna crowdfund for a
film, And we're going to giveeveryone, who invests at x level
a preview. You're herding cats.
(37:54):
You gotta get everyone availableon the same day. And when you
don't, then it's well, is therea replay? And how do I still see
it before everyone else? Like,it's a whole thing. So you wanna
have all of that stuff organizedas much as humanly possible.
I would say the deliverables iswhere things can get hairy,
especially if you're promisingmerch that goes along with your
(38:16):
service. If you're promisingmerch, you're dealing with the
postal service or whoever yourshipper or whoever you're using
to ship your stuff. It's a wholeother thing. I think people
think that that stuff is justgonna be easy and it's not. They
think that those actions oh, I'mjust gonna be able to do that.
(38:37):
Yeah. Well, not so much. Right?The other thing is I would not
use the money right away.Sometimes I mean, this happens
before the payout happens onmost crowdfunding platforms
anyway.
But sometimes crowdfundingplatforms can't collect. Like,
(38:57):
Kickstarter has a 7 daycollection window. Every
platform is different.Kickstarter has a 7 day
collection window in whichthey're like, alright. You
promised this thing.
Now we're gonna collect and, youknow, they will not extend that
window. It's 7 days. That's it.That's all you got. Right?
So people underestimate theyoverestimate what they actually
(39:18):
are gonna get. Now if yourcampaign, like my client's
campaign, is running at 5 x,then you probably don't have to
worry about that. But if you'rerunning kinda neck and neck with
the goal, you wanna be reallycareful that you leave room and
margin for the fact that they'renot gonna be able to collect on
some people.
Susan Boles (39:37):
Oh, I hadn't thought about that. I guess
common sense. Maybe it's notcommon sense there. Like, you
kind of assume that if peoplehave pledged this, they're gonna
be able to collect. No.
Lena West (39:49):
No. So
Susan Boles (39:49):
I guess not so much.
Lena West (39:52):
And listen. It's not because people wanna screw you
over or people are malicious oranything like that. It's just
people have really goodintentions, and then, like, life
happens. You know, things happenin their lives, and they're not
able to maintain the commitment.So I would say if it's hair thin
there, you wanna make sure thatyou're not, overestimating what
(40:14):
you can collect.
Susan Boles (40:16):
So on the other side of the coin, are there
things that would make theprocess easier, either resources
or assets, things that should becreated, ways that you should be
thinking about structuring yourcampaign or your deliverables
that makes the process goeasier, smoother, simpler?
Lena West (40:36):
I would say if you can work with somebody who
writes copies specifically forthese campaigns, If you can work
with videographers or multimediaproduction artists that work
specifically with crowdfundingcampaigns, do that. I would say
be really clear about the teamyou need to make this happen. I
(40:59):
can't underscore that enough.Right? Do not underestimate who
you're going to need to makethis happen because all of those
things make a difference.
All of those elements make adifference. And someone who has
done a bunch of crowdfunding, abunch of promotional videos for
crowdfunding campaigns, they'regonna be able to fast track it
(41:21):
for you. They're gonna be ableto say, oh, no. You don't wanna
do this. You wanna do this.
You want this. You want this.This is how we show this
visually. They're just gonna beable to fast track it for you in
a way that a maybe possibly atraditional videographer may
not. So team is gonna be superimportant.
Copy is gonna be superimportant. Being able to
translate your vision to visualsis super important because so
(41:45):
often, as you say, it's hard forsomeone to visualize a service
based business that, you know,you can't kind of imagine it.
And having a checklist of thethings that you need, treating
this like a legit projectbecause it is.
Susan Boles (42:03):
It is. Yeah.
Lena West (42:04):
Project management. Huge.
Susan Boles (42:07):
Okay. So other than crowdfunding, are there other
funding options that you thinkservice based businesses should
be considering when they'rethinking about funding their
business?
Lena West (42:19):
Absolutely. Grants, fellowships, stipends,
entrepreneur in residenceprograms, all of those.
Susan Boles (42:30):
Interesting. Are there specific places or
circumstances where you thinkcertain types of businesses fit
with certain types of fundingoptions or folks should be
exploring these optionsregardless?
Lena West (42:47):
I feel like if you've decided we're going to go the
non dilutive funding route, butwe do need funding, then a
portion of your day or yourweek, depending upon how urgent
the need for funding is, needsto be dedicated towards finding
those funding sources andapplying. Sometimes the
application is like, hey, fillthis out, tell us a bit about
your business, you know, uploadyour deck, that sort of a thing.
(43:08):
And then sometimes it's morein-depth and it requires an
interview. I filled one outrecently, with a client and it
required a Loom video. You know,it depends.
But I would say, if you know youneed funding, then carve out
time every single day. Just likeyou would if you were
prospecting, just like you wouldfor sales, carve out just like
(43:30):
you would for marketing, carveout time. If you know this is
the route that you wanna go foryour funding, carve out time to
actually find funds that fit foryou. I would also, a little
sneaky trick, if I may, share ifthere's a company in your
industry that has receivedfunding or if you know that a
(43:50):
founder has gotten some nondilutive funding, set up a
Google alert. We're a Notionshop.
So we'll set up a Google alert,and we'll create a Notion
database with our clients. Andso we'll say, listen. We missed
the application window justbecause by luck of when they
reached out to us to do thistype of work, they missed the
(44:12):
deadline. So next year, this ison your calendar. Here's the
link to the application, andthese are the assets that you're
gonna need.
Get your assets together aheadof time so that when it comes
time to apply, Bing. Now here'sthe thing. People always ask me,
Lena, does it make sense toapply right when it opens or
(44:34):
more when it closes or moretowards the middle? And I feel
like it makes more sense toapply right when they begin, and
here's why. Typically, fundingnon dilutive funding sources
like grants and fellowships andsuch, their board is reviewing
this or they've kind ofdeveloped this kind of adjunct
(44:57):
board.
And by the time they get to theend, they're like, nobody's
getting anything. I don't wannawatch one more of these videos.
I wanna go home, pass thefreaking chocolate chip cookies
already. Like, I'm done. And sothey typically make up their
mind early.
So the earlier you can apply inthe funding window, the better.
Susan Boles (45:18):
So is there anything you think we should
talk about that we haven'ttouched on yet, either around
non dilutive funding as a wholeor crowdfunding, crowdsourcing
specifically?
Lena West (45:30):
Listen. I think it's important for us to say that VC
and Angel Funding, it's not, youknow, evil and, you know, taking
over the world. I just reallyfeel like there are other
options now, and why not explorethose options? I would also add
(45:52):
that each time you decide tofill out the grant application
or fill out the application toreceive a stipend or whatever it
is, whatever non dilutivefunding is, or do a crowdfunding
campaign. Each time you decideto do that, it gets easier.
It gets better because you haveassets you can leverage. You you
(46:14):
know the ropes a little bitmore. And especially from a
grant perspective, I think ifyou're gonna go the grant route,
one of the things that you needto know is and this is no dis
for grant writers. I am notsaying that at all. Grant
writers are needed.
We need our writers. You don'thave to have a grant writer if
it's your first rodeo. Right?You can write your own grant
(46:37):
application. Typically, whatgrantors are looking for is your
use of funds.
So what are you gonna do withthe money? And they're looking
for, do you fit with the folksthat we wanna help with this
grant? Like, is there a fit?They're not looking for you to
do all the pros, and in fact,that can kinda work against you.
(47:00):
They just want you to be real.
They want you to be honest, andthey want you to be passionate
about what you're doing. They'renot looking for you to be a
grant writing expert. They'relooking for you to be you, the
founder of this thing. They'relooking for you to be
passionate, and they're alsolooking for you to have have
made some tracks on your own.They wanna see that, hey.
(47:23):
You've been doing this andyou're committed to this and not
just looking for a check.
Susan Boles (47:29):
Thank you so much for being here and for this
conversation. It was so it wasso good.
Lena West (47:35):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Susan Boles (47:38):
Where can our listeners find you if they want
to connect or learn more aboutyou or what you do?
Lena West (47:44):
They can find me on LinkedIn, and they can also find
out more about our ink. It's thefirst of its kind for service
based business owners. It is anincubator accelerator hybrid. It
is not for the tech bros. It isfor us, the service based folks,
and they can find out all ofthat information at
(48:04):
ceorising.co.
Not dot com, but dotco.
Susan Boles (48:09):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here
and for sharing with me. Ireally appreciate it.
Lena West (48:15):
Absolutely. Thank you.
Susan Boles (48:21):
Crowdfunding can be a really great option for you if
you've got a new service or aproject you're launching. I've
seen it used really successfullyto launch books, communities,
and more. Even something assmall as offering a Patreon for
your podcast or a Substack foryour newsletter is actually a
form of crowdfunding and can bea great way to supplement your
(48:41):
client revenue and diversify alittle bit. This whole theme is
talking about all different waysyou can fund your business, but
you don't have to pick all of 1or all of another. You can
pursue different types offunding and diversify where that
cash is coming from.
You can mix and match to suityour needs or to support
different products in differentways. For example, my own
(49:03):
business has lots of differenttypes of funding sources. I work
with clients as a fractional CFOand business advisor, but I also
have sponsors that I work withthat support both my podcast and
my newsletter. I work with a fewcompanies as an affiliate, and
that brings in some supplementalrevenue. But I also have a few
lines of credit that I tap intofrom time to time.
(49:23):
I have an SBA loan that I tookon when they were offering loans
directly to business ownersduring the early COVID stimulus
efforts. And that's what we'regoing to be talking about in the
next episode, using debtstrategically. So make sure you
are subscribed in your favoritepodcast player so you don't miss
that one. And if you know afellow business owner who is
(49:44):
thinking about how to fund theirown business, please share this
episode with them. I reallyappreciate it, and it helps me
get the information out to morepeople who need it.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!