Sick of Chasing After Angels and VCs? – Try This

Equity Crowdfunding is giving promising young companies a chance to raise money from the crowd in a whole new way. Ever heard of it? If not, think of it like a Kickstarter campaign, but instead of a physical reward, people get shares of your company.

Sound too good to be true? It’s absolutely real: you can now sell shares of your business to almost anyone, as long as you’re incorporated, your head office is in a participating jurisdiction, you have a business plan, and you’re not doing anything illegal.

You also have to raise your funds on a secure equity crowdfunding portal. Securities regulators set the rules for exactly how you can raise money. In the USA, the JOBS Act allows equity crowdfunding, and in Canada the Startup Crowdfunding Exemption is the one you want to look at. There are a number of other exemptions that allow for equity crowdfunding as well; check with the National Crowdfunding Association, or the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada, to learn more about those.

But before we get to the specific rules, let’s talk a bit more about this exciting new opportunity.

If it seems like everywhere you look, doors are slamming and you just can’t get the money you need to grow your business, equity crowdfunding might be your answer.

To raise any money with equity crowdfunding, you have to be totally transparent about your company’s performance and finances. This is a marketplace where the crowd gets to know everything about your business so they can make an educated decision to invest in you – or not. So if you don’t have a business plan, now’s the time to write one. If you’ve been slacking on ANY filings or taxes, catch up.

There’s an important legal component too; a securities lawyer can ensure your corporate documents are in order and help you structure your equity crowdfunding offer, including the type and price of shares. There are actually quite a few legal considerations to be made before you launch an equity crowdfunding campaign, so you must connect with a good lawyer. Yes, it costs money and no, it’s not the most exciting part of your campaign, but you absolutely have to do this part. It’s non-negotiable.

Once all the housekeeping’s done, you can choose a platform to showcase your company and your equity offer. Look for a portal that offers a lot of resources to help you mount a successful campaign. Just like Kickstarter, you have to have a great marketing campaign to make sure investors know about your offer, so the more support you can get from the platform, the better.

Also take a look at the due diligence or vetting process that the platform uses. Some portals make companies apply to work with them, while others require just a simple sign-up process. The ones that are really easy to sign up for don’t always have the best companies using their services, and are more vulnerable to fraud and unethical businesses. You might not want to be associated with those businesses, so take a look at the companies that are already raising money on a given platform before you decide to use them. Platforms also charge a fee, which could be a flat rate or a percentage of the money you raise. Fees could range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

Know that it will cost you some money to launch an equity crowdfunding campaign (in legal fees, platform fees, and consulting or business plan coaching fees), but it’s so worth it to know that your business is healthy and organized, you have a superb business plan, and you have an excellent crowdfunding platform to help you boost your campaign.

Like rewards-based crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding requires a great marketing plan; you need a good way to get the crowd behind your idea and excited about investing in it.

But a successful campaign is about more than just good marketing. Your company also needs to be fundable, and that’s a bit of a subjective judgment.

Most companies need to be more than just ideas when they get into equity crowdfunding. If you’re not generating revenue, you’re about to. You might have a working prototype, or you’ve done beta testing to prove your concept. Perhaps you have investors or advisors endorsing you already, who will increase the confidence of the crowd.

If you’re a startup owner then you know how hard it is to find financing for your business, especially if your company is really new. It’s hard to get bank financing as a new company, because you don’t have many assets and startups are considered high-risk to lenders. Most Venture Capitalists won’t take a chance on a really small company and it’s hard to even grab their attention when thousands of new businesses are popping up all over North America every month. Angel funding is so incredibly risky that there just aren’t that many Angel investors out there, and many of them are tapped out already because they get so many pitches.

With equity crowdfunding, you can raise small amounts of money from almost any member of the public, connecting your company to capital that simply wasn’t accessible until now.

And once you do, you have direct access to a group of investors who can become powerful ambassadors for your brand.

I hope you’re as excited about that as I am!

Ready to grow your business? Download your FREE Ultimate Guide to Prepping Your Business for Equity Crowdfunding and get set to skyrocket your business!

This article was first published on StartUp Mindset.