Crowed Funding a latest term but an older concept; can e-entrepreneurs get the use of it?

Crowed Funding a latest term used by online entrepreneurs when raising funds for their startups, though the concept seems to be older than it appears to be. The logic behind ‘Crowed Funding’ denotes receiving small donations through a huge amount of crowed (people), for the startups that include many online voluntary services. Wikipedia can be the best example for an online resource running successfully in the land of internet with the benefits gained by Crowed Funding. Diaspora a non-profit social networking site is also popular for Crowed Funding, which raised 200 000 $ in seed money through a Crowed Funding platform. Hence, many e-entrepreneurs have started using Crowed Funding as the prime source of financing to their startups.

However, it cannot be expected that ‘Crowed Funding’ can be the solution for all types of startups or even to run all types of existing businesses.  If someone is willing to donate for our startups, it should be understood that the reasoning behind would be really serious. Millions of people are willing to donate to Wikipedia since this site has turned be a FREE important source of online learning for many people and they honestly want that the site to be running without having to face any difficulties. However, there are several other reasons for why people would bother to donate. Few years back, a young entrepreneur created a concept named ‘Million dollar website’ and the only intention for his starting was to cover his school payments. The ‘Million dollar website’ had one million cells in the home page, and the initiator promised that he would display one million advertisements in one million cells. His deal was quiet simple, yes..he sold each cell for an advertisement just for one dollar, and he earned one million dollars within one week of time. It may seem like a transaction, but is a kind of Crowed Funding since Crowed Funding does not necessarily expected to be free at all times.

Depending on the requirements, Crowed Funding may occur in different forms. Sites like Wikipedia do not promise to offer something in exchange, as they are completely free to the users that itself motivates donations. I have seen several sites filled up HTML tutorials always have a button for DONATE and there is no doubt in that the users would do so since such sites really stimulate a good learning for them. In case of Diaspora and other networking sites, people understand the importance of running such sites and tend to donate them as well. However, some creative Crowed Fund bidders tend to promise something in exchange such as a valuable e-book, or a free membership, or even a free advertisement space in their websites. Kickstarter, RocketHub, Seedrs and Grow VC are some Crowed Funding platforms where entrepreneurs can bid for a fund stating all their requirements. I think, there will be a boost for entrepreneurs who get the use of Crowed Funding in the new future considering to the importance given to this topic in the press releases.     

By

Mathangie

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Spirit behind successful entrepreneurship; my views on Bill Gates and Richard Branson

Many factors create influences in introducing successful entrepreneurs to the world. We can divide successful entrepreneurs into three segments. First segment of entrepreneurs are born rich, they undertake either their dads' or mums’ businesses and their inborn intrepreneurial (risk taking ability on their parents or relatives’ businesses) wave drive them towards entrepreneurship, in a way they start undertaking the whole responsibility of an existing business. Second segment of entrepreneurs come up from great difficulties, and their souls are taken towards lights of entrepreneurship through their own definitions of paths for the challenges they faced. Some researchers have proved that the negative aspects such as childhood difficulties and work-place discriminations influence in entrepreneurship and the researchers have named such behavior as ‘glass ceiling’. Third segment of entrepreneurs just happen to start their businesses accidently and is purely situational, it is wonderful that these guys accidently discover their sprit of entrepreneurship.

Bill Gates is the person behind billions of dollars, of course the godfather for many people who start their own businesses regardless of their country, race, and religion, who is too criticized under some grounds but  one greatest person who should be merited for many pros.  Typically, Bill Gates falls under the second segment, yes, he was not a born rich and came up in the ladder because of his hard work not even smart work. Here are some merits that made Bill Gates successful; passion, giving back to the society, ability to think big, commitment, hard work, ability to take right decisions in the right time and several other etc. I would say Bill Gates had gained his greatest success at the point when he decided to leave Harvard University for a business opportunity that he thought would be a greatest asset of his future. How many of us would give-up our degree or even a daily job for an uncertain opportunity that we think would be paying well in the future? This is not to say that giving up work, degree, or even that courageous would be enough to become an entrepreneur, but it is all about deciding what is important on what time and ability of well-analyzing the existing opportunities.

Contrarily, Richard Branson the forth-richest person (if I am not mistaken) in the UK & the chairperson of the Virgin Groups of company, in an interview cited from Entrepreneur (2011) says;  “In 1970, my friends and I weren't planning to do anything other than make some money and have a good time while doing something we loved. We loved listening to music, so we tried to sell records to other kids who wanted a fun place to hang out while deciding which ones to buy. We had no marketing plan or budget – our goals were simply to make enough money to pay the rent and our suppliers, and to have some cash left over at the end of the month. Our launch was really no different from that of most small companies, since few entrepreneurs start thinking about their business's culture until it is already well established.”   

His view seems to say that they had never planned about the business on where they want to go, what to do and even how to do. He owes an excellent justification for why his business keeps on growing though they never thought that it would become to such a great position when they started their business years ago; yes, having a big plan, and budget is not necessarily important for an entrepreneur to become successful, he or she must basically LOVE what he or she does. Richard Branson’s strategy behind success says no big plans, only the love and commitment will leave the business towards a successful point, which would even stimulate ‘vertical disintegration’ where the business will automatically diversified into new clusters.   

By

Mathangie

You are invited to comment on this blog or alternatively you may send your views to nichecrunch@hotmail.com

   

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