Supporting your communities’ small business ecosystem

The unhindered entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners and the passion of the community members must be moulded into an everlasting partnership that is beneficial for both. In their co-operation and collaboration lies the well being of a community and its people. A community should support local small businesses and recognize the role they play in strengthening its economic performance. They should connect them with resources to help them grow beyond the boundaries of the community, while keeping the jobs within it.

Exploring the entrepreneurial communities’ activities across the spectrum will provide insights into what it takes to sustain the effort of building a partnership between the both. Fortunately it doesn’t require a great deal of funding as the resources needed are already present in the community. A clear focus on funding, training, and financing for small businesses will go a long way in strengthening the collaboration. The key components to creating a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem are:

·  Creating a steady supply of skilled workers

·  Cultivating technology exchange and innovation

·  Access to funding

·  Promoting awareness and building networks

·  Optimizing the regulatory policies

It is important to work towards an inclusive ecosystem for the businesses and their owners to grow and thrive. You should provide technical assistance and skills training, increased access to affordable capital, and help to create an entrepreneurial environment that also focuses on innovative solutions to the region's problems. Universities, venture creators, supply chains and job-training programs are more likely to contribute to a regions’ prosperity when they are networked and encouraged to work in tandem.

Enhancing the collaboration among these institutions can enrich the business ecosystem, catapult ideas, create job-creating start-ups, help companies find skilled labor and nurture innovations. In order to generate a growing community, it is important that you get the leaders involved, cultivate your local and global networks, and work together. It is imperative to provide the community as well as the business owners the opportunity to get to know one another and strengthen their networks through various events.

Every community has merits that are core to its success and contributes to the economic progress. The community’s leadership must unleash this potential and connect them to their community’s growth model. Strong universities and a vibrant startup community are drivers for the growth of any community. A growing community today, should create the right support network for small businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish and  allow them to take the many steps that will ultimately create the change in their lives.

Crowdfunding: Finding the best Platform

One of the earliest instances of crowd funding of a project can be traced back to the year 1884, when the Statue of Liberty first arrived in USA. At the time, the pedestal it stands on today hadn’t been built. Entrepreneur Joe Pulitzer asked residents of New York to donate towards the cost of constructing it in exchange for a mention in his paper. Donations poured in from big business to school children and the target was met. The format, over the years, has undergone changes, spreading with the rising popularity of internet, and has moulded into a popular model which helps with the raising of funds.

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, today often performed via internet-mediated registries. In recent years, more and more platforms and websites have been launched, all offering crowd funding in one way or another. These websites allow people to raise funds for everything from real estate, charity, schools to business. These crowd funding sites give entrepreneurs a wide choice of options on  not only for fund raising but also a platform for their campaign.

But the wide spectrum of options bring along with it the predicament of choice of which platform is best for budding entrepreneurs. To determine the most suitable crowd funding source for your idea, here are certain points you should keep in mind -

·  Type of product and its current stage

       The type of product you create will determine where you can go for funds. Another factor that will influence is what stage your project or product is currently in. Taking an unrefined concept or an unpolished idea to crowd funding sites will not give you any leads.

·  Funding history of the site

       You should see if similar products have been funded and how it successful it was. You need to be sure the platform caters to your product and target audience before starting a campaign.

·  Funding Model

       Crowdfunding sites run either rewards, donation, equity, lending or hybrid-based funding models. Having a clear idea of how each one works and how it would impact your business is of primary importance.

·  Reach of the platform

       These platforms are usually the first interface in your marketing process. The communities developed on these platforms can play an important role in the campaigning of your products

·  Cost-Benefit Analysis

       Cost-benefit analysis of each site should be done to see which platform suits you the best, your reasonable profit margins with the campaign, time frames that you can meet etc.

Crowdfunding has become the way to raise money for all kinds of projects, especially since the onset of digital era. Businesses, nonprofits, artists, and entrepreneurs in all sectors have succeeded in running startup funding campaigns on the many crowdfunding platforms available. There is no denying the huge amount of money that crowdfunding can raise, but it might not work for every project. Many entrepreneurs have failed, because they didn’t fully understand the implications, got their data wrong or didn’t chose the correct platform. You need to be well informed and well prepared. Only by diligently doing home work, gathering necessary data and proper in-depth analysis will you be able to assess the workability of using crowd funding for your business, and successfully finance your dreams into a reality.