Crowd Funding Success
Congratulations. Your crowd funding campaign succeeded. Take a few minutes to enjoy your success, then WATCH OUT and BE SMART. You’re on the public domain with a product people seem to like so remember competitors, as well as consumers have taken notice.
Take a few minutes to enjoy this step toward financial success. High five with your family and team, but remember, this is just one step toward your goal of earning cash, it’s not the end of the game. You’re just ahead at half time.
Here are the most common challenges of crowd funding success that I’ve noticed.
The Big Head
Successful crowd funding campaigns have a tendency to increase the circumference of the cranium for some inventors. Often the value of campaign success is delusion-ally inflated, forgetting there is a long road ahead with many additional “small wins” required for serious financial gain. Bottom line is; you’re going to need a lot more help to leverage the win from this one successful endeavor. Choose your next step and your partners wisely.
Confusion
Inventors get bombarded with offers from service providers, serious licensees, strategic alliances and potential partners. Sorting out who’s who is a chore. Everyone seems to have the answer so deciding the best, least expensive / highest potential, next step can be a daunting task. In truth, none of us has a working crystal or Magic 8 Ball. Write out your options and consider risk vs reward soberly. Go with your gut, but don’t let emotions mistake dreams for best practice product launch sequences. There are no pie in the sky, get rich quick schemes in inventing. Whatever you do next takes time and money. It’s just a matter of who’s going to spend it.
Manufacturing
Inventors often think it’s smart to say they found overseas manufacturing and have traveled internationally to visit. It sounds cool over drinks and makes you feel like a good business person. The reality is that manufactures need volume so when you are a small, short run client your not really going to get the quality and time you think you are, in the early stage, no matter how much salesmanship makes you believe you will. Even so, starting with a small run will fulfill your obligations and give you some market test data. Don’t make too many units, even if the unit price is higher per piece. I promise you, you’ll want to make design changes once your customers start giving real feedback. Guard your cash like a junk yard dog. You’re going to need it.
Before you take this step, be sure to count the cost, then double it. There’s a training video on these challenges available on my YouTube channel in the Manufacturing playlist.
Capital Needs
The crowd funding money was a great start. You’ve got a few seeds, but you’re going to need more cash to end well. The more you sell, the more cash for operations & inventory you’ll need. Be sure to save profits now and consider ways to maximize your finances. You won’t get to pocket any money for a while. It’s time to press in and lay a good foundation.
Competition & Knock-Offs
Since you did well, you can bet your competitors are alerted. I have 62 product scouts scanning the public domain looking for products that meet a narrow criteria of As Seen On TV. You can bet your competitor pays attention too. They may contact you and want to license your product. If so, my advise if they are a large, dominate company, is to take the deal and say “Thank you”.
They are far better positioned to move your product quickly to market. If you decline or give them the impression you’re “difficult”, you should expect competition. Large companies can and will employ aggressive techniques when they find winning products in their sector. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. A tiny sliver is often better then missing out completely. Like in poker, the one with the most chips is at an advantage so don’t be foolish by finding yourself in legal battles you really can’t win.
As Seen On TV Products
If your product is a physically small product that solves and everyday problem in a visually demonstrable way, I hope you’ll give me “First Look” BEFORE your crowd funding campaign begins or as soon as possible whether funded or not. We license products with no patent, on a simple mock-up prototype and home made demo video, in under 30 days. Checkout Will It Launch?
My suggestion is enjoy your crowdfunding success and leverage it for a licensing agreement. If you need help and want to hire a licensing agent, checkout Inventive Ideas.
Simultaneously, start building your business by fulfilling your crowd funding obligations with good communication and excellence. It’s time to prove there is market demand, leveraging your crowd funders networks, and generate more cash. Don’t believe you have to go big. Sometimes it’s better to start small and build a profitable business organically, then take on a bunch of debt or investors and risk the family farm.
Whatever you decide, send me a link to your campaign with the product name in the subject line and I’ll do my best to chime in with some free advice and promote it if you’re active on my social networks.
Congratulations on your crowd funding success. See you on the shelves!
crowd funding success!
Carrie Jeske
