Funding Your Business

[Moonshea Botanicals]

I am considering trying out IndieGoGo or Kickstarter crowdsourcing sites. Has anyone done this or knows a person that has done this? I am still in the process of getting info. Thanks in advance.

 

[la-rene]

I say go for it. But, I've had friends try Kickstarter and fail. So, I think, unless your product/idea is really, really unusual, it may be hard to get strangers to chip in. So, my advice would be to think of a really kick butt product idea that no one else does or a way to market like no one else does and give it a go. Luck!

 

[lemontongue]

My only suggestion is to make sure you have a plan for how you will spend the funds and be as transparent as possible, to a certain extent. It seems to make people have more trust in you. Also have good perks, a creative and quality product, and don't half *** your proposals at all. Use as much high quality versions of your products that you can, some people make videos even - you could even include clips of you making soap and/or your product.

 

[SpiritedAway]

Kick starter is a very hit or miss sort of mistress. People need to really be interested in your idea or product for you to get any significant funding. The worst thing that can happen is you get no money,so its not like you'll be out anything. I say go for it, theres always a chance

 

[pamielynn]

I don't want this to come off rudely at all, but didn't you just make your first batch? Or did I read that post wrong - I'm prone to doing that.

 

[Moonshea Botanicals]

I don't want this to come off rudely at all, but didn't you just make your first batch? Or did I read that post wrong - I'm prone to doing that.

Yes I did just make my first CP batch. But that doesn't mean that I am not looking into funding my business. I still need money for professional equipment & supplies. Right now I do not have a job so I am living off of my parents retirement. If I had funds I would be taking some burden off them.

 

[pamielynn]

I was just wondering why you'd ask people for money when you don't even know if you're going to like making soap on a large scale, yet. I commend you for trying to make a business to support yourself, I'm just concerned for you to be committing to a craft you haven't mastered yet. There is not a large profit margin in soapmaking until you can buy in bulk (50lb pail of oil, for example) and know that you have a market to sell all those bars. Some people do amazingly well right out the barrel - some struggle for years.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, feeling that it's strange to ask people for money for something like this - but I grew up before crowdfunding came into existence

But, good luck to you!! It can be very exciting to start your own business.

 

[souljasam]

hmmm, i never even heard of that indegogo crowd funding site before but it looks cool. Doesnt really seem to have as much of a following though. On the plus side you can do the flexible funding and keep any fund you do earn even if you dont meet your goal (tho at a higher fee, but it better than no funding)

I say go for it. share the fund as much as you can. Plaster it all over facebook, tumblr, reddit, twitter, google +, and any other place you think would generate traffic. I would honestly even go so far as to print up flyers to post all around my city and the surrounding cities (can never have too much exposure). Then i would just hope for the best.

 

[VanessaP]

It is against Kickstarter's rules to try to fund a bath, beauty or cosmetic project.

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer

I do not know about indiegogo but I assume since you pay a portion of your collections in order to use the service, there aren't as many restrictions. I do see that a company for makeup started on indiegogo so perhaps that would be your way to go.

 

[souljasam]

Really? Since when? Cuz theres been a bunch of b&b kickstarters

 

[Rachelmf]

I hadn't ever looked at the Kickstarter website until I saw this thread, so I don't know when that rule was made. The rules do specifically say, "No bath, beauty, and cosmetic products; electronic surveillance equipment; eyewear (sunglasses, prescription glasses, and others); firearms, weapons, knives, weapon accessories, and replicas of weapons; medical, health, safety, and personal care products; or infomercial-type products."

 

[souljasam]

yeah i saw that, but im pretty sure there a soap kickstarter going right now

edit: see - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2019581283/pams-soap-studio?ref=search

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/252128697/anti-zombie-soap?ref=search

 

[cursivearts]

Call me horrible (and off-topic), but I would not give a single dollar to the anti-zombie soap, if only because they did not use a single period until the end of the second section. It was all just one terrifying run-on sentence.

 

[VanessaP]

Well, the Pam's Soap Studio was pulled - whoever listed it apparently hijacked all the owner's stuff off Etsy to post the project - she filed an intellectual property dispute with Kickstarter. And, well, lets just say that the zombie based project was... interesting.

But just because some do it doesn't mean it is the correct thing to do.

 

[pamielynn]

Well, the Pam's Soap Studio was pulled - whoever listed it apparently hijacked all the owner's stuff off Etsy to post the project - she filed an intellectual property dispute with Kickstarter. And, well, lets just say that the zombie based project was... interesting.

But just because some do it doesn't mean it is the correct thing to do.

Holy crap! I saw that up there and it got fully funded. Some people just don't understand the rules of being a good human being. I'm talking about the Pam's Soap Studio.

 

[gratia]

This.

It is against Kickstarter's rules to try to fund a bath, beauty or cosmetic project.

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer

I do not know about indiegogo but I assume since you pay a portion of your collections in order to use the service, there aren't as many restrictions. I do see that a company for makeup started on indiegogo so perhaps that would be your way to go.

 

[lpstephy85]

Not only can kick not be used for beauty products, it also cannot be used for business. I don't know about Indiegogo, so good luck!

 

[meeplesoap]

Kickstarter is for bringing a specific product to life. Not starting an entire business.

There is a great book, found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594746087/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

We're thinking about Kickstarting a new custom mold to complement our current one, so the KS would be for the mold, not for the soap. After talking it over with the KS team, they are okay with it since our mold would be geared towards creating a product for specific hobby, not just funding our start-up.