You’ve probably heard about the Crowd Funding craze – websites like Kickstarter or Australia’s own Pozible have been all over the media in the last couple of years. Crowd Funding is a way for inventors, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs to get funding for their idea or project from every day people. In return, they offer “rewards” based on the amount of money pledged to the project.

In order to get your money, you need to reach 100% of your funding goal within the required time (normally around 30 days). So, if you ask for $100,000 and you get $99,999 in pledges – the money isn’t taken from the accounts of the people who pledge and you fail to win your funding.

What’s super cool about using Crowd Funding is that you get the opportunity not only to expose your business to your clients, but also – through the Crowd Funding websites built-in audience – to hundreds of thousands more people.

There are literally people who trawl these sites, just looking for interesting projects to throw a few hundred dollars at (I may or may not be one of those weirdos, myself … ).

Zoe Tame and Drew Hobbs from IRL Shooter have now TWICE smashed Australian Crowd Funding records.

Their company runs an immersive “real life video game experience”. It’s pretty damn rad – people run around a warehouse shooting at zombies with laser guns and solving puzzles and stuff.

But, Zoe and Drew say that the strategy they’ve used to create more than $1Million in pledges over the last two years, also works for less far out ideas.

They’ve helped people in far more conservative industries hit their funding goals too.

They say that Crowd Funding can help any kind of business raise money for a project. What kind of a project? Here are just a few ideas they gave me:

Some ideas that would create successful Crowd Funding campaigns

1. Funding an event – whether a 3 day seminar or a larger conference style event.
   Potential rewards: event tickets, sponsorship opportunities.
2. Creating an App or other piece of software.
   Potential rewards: obviously, a copy of the software or the app. Also, an invite to the launch party; a meeting with the CEO; depending on the app, perhaps for a large pledge you could work their name in.
3. Writing and publishing a book – whether a novel, a non-fiction business book, or a table-top style book of photos and / or illustrations.
   Potential rewards: copy of the book; chance to contribute; chance to advertise; chance to send out insert mail with the book; invite to launch party.
4. A retail premises – Melbourne’s Cat Café will be opening shortly, the owners used Crowd Funding to raise the money to do it. Other entrepreneurs have used the money to fund “pop up shops” (a store that opens for a few weeks in a single location then moves on) – a great option for online retailers who don’t want a full time retail premise, but who would like to interact with the public a few times a year.
   Potential rewards: invites to launch party, special events; use of the space; hand-written thank you notes; free meals / products.
5. Publishing an on or offline magazine.
   Potential rewards: launch party tickets; event tickets; lifetime subscription; chance to meet celebrities in your industry that you interview; chance to be featured on the cover
6. Building and launching an online product – online launches have become less and less effective recently. Crowd Funding follows many of the same principles, but also exposes you to a whole new crowd of people through the built in audience of the website.
   Potential rewards: copies of the product; ability to submit specific questions to be answered; invitation to other events.

If you’re still not sure what you’d use the money for – but would like to come up with an idea – we’ve put together this Crowd Funding cheat sheet for you.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CHEAT SHEET