How to use Kickstarter to launch a business

As a small business, getting finance is always a big problem- even more so nowadays with poorer economic times. And let’s not say too much about the banks! An alternative funding source to get you off the ground might be crowd funding. What you ask? Well, the basic idea is to get a “crowd” of people to all provide a small amount of money to help start your business venture. So if you needed €2,000 to kick start you venture, could you get 200 people to “donate” €10 each – I say donate as they may not get any return from it.  But where’s the crowd you ask? Well, social networking is the “in thing” nowadays it seems. You could use you business and social networking contacts as a start. If this is not sufficient, there are some websites out there you may help. Kickstarter.com is one such site  ( here’s a recent piece from inc.com “How to Use Kickstarter to Launch a Business“.  While such site are in their infancy and may still be more common in the US than Europe, don’t rule them out straight away. Crowd financing may be a viable answer to those smaller one-off ventures, but you know what, sometime these turn into a great and booming business.