Crowdfunding Campaigns to Raise Capital

According to the founder of Indiegogo, a crowdfunding company, crowdfunding can be a great way to raise funds for your small business or startup. According to Slava Rubin:

Get 40% – 60% of your funding from friends, family, others that are interested in you and your business. You can then get 20% or so from crowdfunding. The additional PR you get from your crowdfunding campaign will generate a portion of the remainder of the funds.

If you have a money raising campaign, then use create and post a video as part of your campaign.

Per Mr. Rubin, the benefits of using crowdfunding to raise money are as follows:

1. Gage demand, mitigate risks.
2. Test your market
3. Get extra promotion from all the extra social media.
4. Get actual customer data. (Highly valuable, of course!)
5. “You get money.”

To see the actual video, go to How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

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Checking Up on Your Business

I checked out Scott Gerber’s tips on Inc.com. I thought some of the pointers were highly valid so I’ll share a few.

1. Check your cash flow for the coming 1-2 months. I’m a HUGE proponent of charting and tracking cash flow. If you aren’t tracking it, you could be in deep doodoo. If you are tracking it but do so on a very short timeline, then you could become aware of a huge impending deficit but have NO time to do anything about it!
2. Strategically plan your sales. This will help you avoid over concentration with one customer or, if it does happen, help you be able to find other customers to lessen the risk within a suitable time frame. Or, if your sales are dropping off, you can figure out the issue and do something about it before it really adversely impacts your bottom line.
3. Check on what’s working. If something is working really well, run with it. If you don’t pay attention to what works well, you may lose an opportunity.
   

Banks Located Inside Stores

Today I attended the grand opening ceremony for Fifth Third Bank inside of a Kroger Store in Raleigh, NC. It was my first ribbon cutting ceremony so that was interesting in itself. But I’ll save those comments for a later day.

The comments made by Kroger’s management and Fifth Third Bank management got me to thinking. How successful are the banking locations located inside popular grocery stores? One of my former businesses banked at SunTrust so I did find it highly convenient that SunTrust had locations inside Publix grocery stores in the Atlanta metro area. They stayed open later. They were highly convenient. I could grab a banana or some baked goods on my way out!

I’ve also seen banks inside Walmart. (Is that a bank partially owned by Walmart. Forgive my powers of observation. Since I don’t bank there, I have not paid the name much attention!) Always, I see a fair number of people inside of these banks or standing in line within the store during the bank’s hours. And banks don’t have the level of overhead that they’d incur from owning a stand alone location.

Does anyone know  the comparison statistics on performance for banks located inside grocery stores vs. stand alone banks? Please share …or you will force me to do research and report back!

In the TrianIn the NC Triangle Area? Check this out on April 13, 2012

Friday, April 13
7:30-11:00pm
Marriot Downtown Raleigh – State Ballroom
500 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh

We invite you to show your support for Passage Home, a local non-profit agency with a vision to fight homelessness and poverty in Wake County. Join us in hearing Jimmy’s story. One like so many others. It’s a story of survival and overcoming the odds. He did this through song.

Limited Seating available.

Every new dollar raised will be doubled through a matching fund!
 

Join me on  April 13^th to see Jimmy Wayne sing & share his story in support of Passage Home and their work to support homeless kids, families, & veterans!  Limited tickets available at http://www.passagehome.org/jimmy.aspx

New Netflix Competitor from Comcast: Xfinity Streampix

Okay, I’m a little late in writing about this. I love my WSJ but sometimes I just don’t get a chance to read it like I’d like! In those cases, I’ll go back and look at the old issues that I missed. Well, in looking back I saw an interesting article in the February 22nd issue of the Wall Street Journal.

In case you are late like me and haven’t heard, Netflix has new competition from Comcast. Comcast has opted to somewhat cannibalize it’s own services (only partially, mind you), as a means of staying ahead of the game and ahead of the rising power of Netflix. It launched a new streaming subscription service called Xfinity Streampix.

Admittedly this service is not on par (yet) with Netflix. It provides old movies and old tv shows. Not old as in “classic” but old as in “not current in the last couple of years”. Xfinity Streampix will cost Comcast subscribers $4.99 per month which is less than what Netflix costs on a monthly basis.

Ahh. As always, success brings in competition. Stay tuned for more…

B of A to Let (a Few) Foreclosed Homeowners Stay

According to an article in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Bank of America is rolling out a new alternative to foreclosure to a select few. That alternative: The homeowner hands over the deed to the bank and the bank lets the homeowner stay in the house as a renter. The first “wave” will be up to 1,000 homeowners in the foreclosure process in Nevada and Arizona (two states with very high foreclosure and default rates) and New York.

That 1,000 may not seem like many but you have to start somewhere. Not all the homeowners will accept the offer. Some will likely pursue the short sale option or loan modification alternative, assuming either makes sense for them and B of A has been responsive.

I think this new option is tied to another Wall Street Journal article I read earlier in the week or the previous week which essentially celebrated the move of large investors into the housing purchase and rental market via the purchase of “packages” of properties from Fannie Mae. When there’s demand, it’s always amazing how another entity will do something creative – i.e., create a new product or service – to fulfill that demand.

Anyway, I think this is a great option for Bank of America to explore. And this, especially if the deed handover/home rental option proves successful, could lead the way for B of A to clear a lot of those failed Countrywide loans off their books faster.

If you are a skilled landlord and have owned/managed a number of rental homes, I recommend you identify and contact the cash-rich entities that are buying up foreclosed properties or considering doing so. They have cash and you don’t. They need house rental management and you have it. It’s a match made between Wall Street and Main Street.

Atlanta Team Ivy Business Breakfast Networking Event

March Meeting
Small Business Access to Capital

 

 

BILL HOLT, EVP,

BUSINESS BANKING, SUNTRUST

“SMALL BUSINESS ACCESS TO CAPITAL”

Are you wondering what this year and the next few years portend for small businesses? Are you in the market for a business loan but aren’t sure what that market looks like? Would you like to know what can be done to increase the likelihood of accessing the capital that is available? Well, come here to hear Bill Holt speak. Bill will give us his insights on accessing capital to grow and expand your small to mid-sized business. You asked. We answered. Come hear him speak!

Click here to register

 

“What does it take to access money in today’s environment?”

Click here to register

Event details:
When: March 21st, 2012 7:30am – 9:00 am.
Where:  City Club of Atlanta (Buckhead)
3343 Peachtree Road
Suite 1850
Atlanta, GA 30326
(404) 442-2600
COST: $20 pre-registration, $25 after March 18th
(Parking is included).