The Art of Starting Small: Five Steps

Put It On Paper!

Have you really thought about the idea? Have you written it down? Research shows that there are numerous benefits to writing down your goals and ideas.

Writing things down sets the intention and is the first practical step. Written ideas are clearer and more tangible than mere thoughts. Moreover, writing or typing out your ideas clears your mind. This begins the organization process and clarifies your random thoughts. Slowly, your ideas begin to connect and a plan comes together.

Did you know that you are more likely to stay motivated when you have a visible reminder of your goals? In a week, a month or a year from now, you can look back to see the progress you have made at the written-down plans. So, go ahead and jot it down!

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Do The Essentials List!

Once written down, don’t stop there, go beyond the writing, capture the things that you need. For instance:

What kind of business am I starting?
What do I need to kick start?
What products will I be offering?
What is the industry like in this line of business? Is it competitive? Am I alone? What are other sellers like me doing?
What is my uniqueness as a business? (The niche)
Where do I see my business in fifteen years?

You may find yourself not having the answers to all these questions at the beginning, and this is okay. This brings us to the third thing…

Do A Recon!

Do a research, find out what other businesses in your industry are doing. What successes and failures are they experiencing? How are the businesses coping with these challenges? What kind of questions should you expect from customers? Which common mistakes should you avoid?

This exercise will give you a clear idea of what to expect and plan for, your timelines, where to source supplies, price estimates, and much much more.

You know what’s awesome? You can do a Recon on your way to work, or your way home. Remember, you are starting small and doing everything a small step at a time. It may take time, but it’s all worth it.

Before we proceed, did you know that every month we hold free webinars just to grow you as an entrepreneur? This month we have 5 Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business with James Macharia! See you there.

Draft A Pre-Budget

Now that you have done a recon and a list of the essentials, draft what your expenditure might look like. At this point, don’t jump to a cumbersome company budget servicing million customers. Hold your brakes, you are not there yet!

Bearing in mind it might take some time to gain customers and establish a regular cash flow, draft a simple day-to-day budget of the costs you anticipate. So, be specific. Draft down the little you need to produce just for the first batch of products. Remember, entrepreneurs that break this secret have higher chance of success that those that don’t.

The Taste-Test

With the budget out of the way, it’s time to test and taste the waters. The only way to know if people want your product is to give them an opportunity to interact with it. Sell to family and friends, get their feedback, and use it to improve the product.

Another way you can test the idea is through crowdfunding. This opens your business and products to customers beyond your network. This means:

More awareness- crowdfunding is a marketing tool
More feedback about your product
Possibly, more funding

You can learn more about crowdfunding here.

Track Progress

Check your progress regularly against your plan to see whether you are moving in the right direction. Remember to always celebrate each milestone no matter how small!

Congratulations on taking the first steps towards bringing your ideas to life. Which step resonated with you the most? Tell us on the feedback.

Remember to Join us for our Free Webinar: 5 Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business on 1st July, 2021. Register Here.

Five Reasons You Should Start Small

May, 2021February, 2022Leave a comment

Be not afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.

Chinese Proverb

Every large business you can think of started small. Even the tech giant, Microsoft, started with two childhood friends who had a dream and it has over the years grown to what you see today. Many entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs find themselves struggling to start their dream business when the answer is sometimes as simple as starting small.

Why start small?

1. It ensures that you start!

Starting your own business can feel like a daunting task even when the passion and excitement are there. Committing to making one small step wards off the paralysis that comes in the beginning when there seems to be just too much to do! It doesn’t take much willpower to do the small tasks, the key is to make each step easy to carry out so that the initial resistance is lowered. Make that phone call, create that Facebook page, draft a monthly budget and before you know it, you have your own small business up and running.

2. Feedback and Flexibility

Starting small opens your business to immediate feedback from the people that matter (customers, suppliers, partners, etc) If you find that 70% of your sales are coming from one out of five products, you might want to focus on developing and improving that one instead of investing equally in all five.

Starting small further gives you the flexibility to incorporate the feedback you get. Even in the event that things do not work out as planned, you have more room to change direction or start over.

3. It minimizes the risk

One of the things that makes beginnings tough is thinking about all the things that could go wrong. Indeed, there are some real risks to starting a business. What if we run out of money? What if people don’t like our products? Starting small makes these risks a little more bearable. You get to learn what works and what doesn’t before investing all your time and resources

4. Grow as it grows

Running a business is a journey of trial and error, and oftentimes the mistakes you make, grow you as a person and as an entrepreneur. The skills that you learn when starting small give you the much needed confidence and motivation to set bigger goals. The more you succeed the more you want to succeed and it’s the small wins that build your momentum towards your big dreams. Clarity also comes with action, the more steps you take, the clearer your vison and direction become.

5. Why not?

There is less to lose in starting small and you can change your mind at any point.

We are all for dreaming big and aiming high. But if the big bold steps are getting in the way of you starting, maybe you should consider taking small daily baby steps. Small efforts sustained over time can produce great results. Consistency is key.

Just start!

Want to learn more?
Register for our Free Webinar, A Guide to Growing Your New Business.

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Thundafund DAC Presentation

February, 2016Leave a comment

It was an overcast Friday morning in Gauteng as two brave crowdfunding enthusiasts were gearing up to present a crowdfunding talk to the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC). As the audience of DAC employees gathered, Patrick Schofield led the charge for the morning by setting the tone of the presentation with an overview of what crowdfunding is, Thundafund’s history and briefly touched on the success of the Creative Crowdfunding Economy Development Project (CCEDP).

Then it was Thundafund’s Marketing Manager’s (or Artist-in-Residence) turn to dive deeper in the state of crowdfunding in the developing world and to further map out Thundafund’s place in the crowdfunding sector. Winslow Schalkwyk spoke from his experience as a freelance artist in South Africa and how this exciting funding model allows artists and creatives to grow their businesses and brands.

Interspersed with fervent questions and answers, the Thundafund team worked their way through the presentation, highlighting all the areas of success and spoke to how, with the support of DAC, they were able to have a success rate of over 80% on the CCEDP.

But, more than just reporting on the CCEDP, the team set out to educate the attendees on what crowdfunding is and how this exciting new funding model can change the landscape of funding in South Africa’s creative sector.

Through the CCEDP, Thundafund has been able to produce Crowdfunding Education Tools. These tools, ranging from videos to workshops, will assist the budding crowdfunder in their quest to have a successful campaign with Thundafund. Another advantage of these education tools is that ThundaFund is now able to reach areas and people in South Africa, wherever there is internet available.

To the future:

Thundafund is currently in the development stage of a new website which is mobile-responsive as well. The team have been making notes from all the feedback received from Project Creators and Backers, and there are many changes being implemented to take the crowdfunding platform to the next level.

Thundafund has produced new crowdfunding education videos with Zootee Studios

#ThundaTip : Action Learning (learning from your mistakes)

September, 2015September, 2015Leave a comment

Action Learning is basically learning from your mistakes and asking the important questions that will get you to the results you want to achieve.

The Action Learning Model can be applied to any aspect of your Thundafund crowdfunding campaign. Whether that’s your social media marketing, setting up your campaign on Thundafund or even your marketing strategy. Applying this model to your creative and collective processes will get you closer to your dreams and goals.

Applying the Action Learning model to your campaign:

1) Plan – decide on what you want to achieve and what the first step toward that goal will be.

2) Act – apply the first step/action.

3) Observe – after implementing the first step ask yourself if you have achieved the goal you set out to achieve.

4) Reflect – what have you learned from this exercise? What needs to change? What could you have done differently?

5) Start Again – Start the cycle again, and again and again until your objectives are achieved.

So simple, yet so rewarding.

Good luck with the rest of your campaign. Let the FUNDing find you and remember the Thundafund Mantra:

#MakeItRain

#ThundaTip : Telling Your Story

July, 2015September, 20152 Comments

“Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a brave crowdfunder set out to tell the world about her amazing idea.”

Writing out your campaign copy is not the same as creating a document for investors to analyse with business terms and big fancy words. The everyday Joe is going to be backing your campaign – speak to them.

People are moved to action by emotional story telling rather than by facts and figures. Think about the TV adverts that you will never forget, do you ever remember numbers and figures? Do you ever remember disingenuous sales tactics? No, you remember how it made you FEEL.

When writing about your crowdfunding campaign, you have got to make people feel. Make them inspired, make them relate to your mission, make them excited about how awesome your project is and that the world can’t go on without it!

The copy of your campaign on Thundafund.com is split into 3 different parts.

1. Matchbox Pitch

This match box pitch is exactly what the name suggests, a write up of your idea that is so short it can be written on the back of a matchbox.

You need to create a paragraph of no more than 140 characters (The same length as a tweet on Twitter) that you can fire off to a potential supporter, in order to gain their backing.

It also appears in your Project Widget on Thundafund.com:

2. About the project

This section is an extension of your matchbox pitch and should be around 60-80 words long:

Make sure that it ends off with a ‘Call-to-Action’ or a challenge. A ‘Call-to-Action’ tells people what you would ideally like them to do and a challenge sets out what you aim to achieve.

Also direct supporter to your rewards set like this:

3. The Full Story

Now you’ve grabbed the attention of your potential supporters. They are interested in who you are and what you’re aiming to achieve through your crowdfunding campaign, but they need a little more convincing.

Like any educated consumer, people need information and emotional engagement in order to part with their hard earned cash and | or engage in supporting something.

A good structure to make sure you’re not missing out on anything:

Who are you?

Whether you’re an individual or an organization, it’s always polite to introduce who you are. Make sure that readers understand what it is that you do, so that it makes sense in the scheme of the campaign.

Past, Present, Future

Give brief highlights on what you have done in the past, where you are now and where you aim to be in the future.

Why you’re crowdfunding?

Detail out to readers what you’re aiming to achieve through a successful crowdfunding campaign. This is the crux of the matter, if you can’t explain to people why you’re running a campaign it’s going to leave them very confused.

Milestone Details.

Write out how much money you need at each Milestone, and what that money is going towards. Be as specific as you can be, people want to know exactly what their money is going towards.

The Ask

A lot of people, and organizations, struggle to ask for donations or to ask people to buy rewards…just be out with it! You will never gain anything from being quiet, you might as well give yourself a chance.

You can follow us here.

Adding your online links at the bottom of the page is always a great option to allow readers to do further research on you, or to let them engage on your social media without actually buying a reward.

If you follow these tips, and add your own pizazz, you are surely on your way to writing a crowdfunding story that will inspire the most hardened money-saver to support your campaign!

#MakeItRain

Your Homework: Do At Least One Customer Interview

April, 2015September, 2015Leave a comment

Some solid advice from Dave Duarte on the importance of customer validation!

Customer interviews are essential as part of the marketing process, as they help us make sure that what we are offering actually has willing buyers, and that we’re presenting it in a way that is compelling for these potential buyers.

Here’s some suggestions for how you’ll structure your interview… Feel free to go off-script or create your own questions. (Plus, shiny gold star for anyone who does 5 or more interviews!) Continue reading →

A Step-by-Step Guide to Startup Customer Acquistion

April, 2015September, 2015Leave a comment

The road to startup customer acquisition (also known as “The Island of Greatness”) is a long one! You’re in the process of crowdfunding or you’ve got some funding, you’ve got a product hundreds of people love and you’ve got a great story to tell. Now what…? How do you take it to the next level and scale?

Well, the answer is simple (but takes a lot of work)! A combination of content marketing, PR and social media will take your startup to new heights. You’ll reach your target audience, build thought leadership, foster a strong community, position yourself in front of industry influencers – the whole nine yards.

If you’ve ever wondered how we help our clients acquire new customers and scale to the next level, you won’t want to miss this. You can start right here and right now. So, without further ado, here’s OnBoardly’s step-by-step guide to startup customer acquisition…

Via Onboardly.

Stand Out From The Crowd In 5 Simple Steps

April, 2015September, 20151 Comment

If you’re in business, chances are you’re trying to get someone – a customer or prospective client – to do something, whether it’s call you, visit your website, try your product or back your crowdfunding campaign… But in a crowded marketplace, how do you distinguish yourself from the competition?

Here’s how your business can better educate and communicate with your customers: Continue reading →

7 Winning Attributes For A Great Crowdfunding Campaign!

March, 2015September, 2015Leave a comment

There are 7 important attributes that are common in successful campaigns. Let’s look at what makes a campaign a winner & when planning your campaign, try to incorporate as many of these attributes as possible.

Continue reading →

The Crowdfunding Life Cycle