By Marci Seither, Contributing Writer

Being  a business minded homemaker is something that we can cultivate, reap the benefits of, and teach our kids; some refer to the occupation/calling as being the ultimate Proverbs 31 Woman I call it being a MOMpreneur.

Have you ever had a really great idea or concept but just didn’t know how to get it off the ground? Sometimes it is a matter of brainstorming, defining your target market, or coming up with the money needed to complete and launch your product. More and more entrepreneurs are turning to crowd funding as a viable funding resource, in fact, since 2009 over 8 million people have backed Kickstarter projects and that is just one cite out of many.

What is crowdfunding?                                                                                                                         crowd·fund·ing (n)Donation-based crowdfunding is asking a crowd, usually consisting of friends, family, and acquaintances to financial back your project in exchange for tangible, non-monetary rewards such as an e-books, the product you are developing, and other creative backer rewards.

My first crowd funding experience

After 8 years of working on the manuscript for “The Adventures of Pearley Monroe” I was at the point where I needed to relook at the quickly changing publishing options, especially self-publishing. While I had the manuscript done, I still needed to format it, pay for cover design, get an ISBN number, and have it professionally edited.

My goal was to help 9-12 year olds fall in love with history through the historical fiction book I had written. I figured it was going to take about $2,000 for my manuscript to become a book that readers could hold in their hands.

After some research, I decided that I had three options.

• Save up money doing small writing jobs and wait until I could cover my expenses.
• Take out a private loan from family and friends that would need to be repaid with interest.
• Crowdfund the book expenses and get the project printed and to my readers.

Not all crowdfunding companies are the same

Kickstater is an all or nothing way to bring projects to life and every project has to be reviewed to make sure it meets criteria. IndieGoGo has different levels of backing and no criteria. GoFundMe is a way for people to get donations for anything from medical needs to honeymoon expenses.

I felt that Kickstarter was the best option for my project. It was a lot of trial and error to navigate all the details, but I was able to launch the campaign, asking for the almost 4,000 dollars in 31 days. In estimating cost and expenses you need to consider what you need for venture capital and what your expenses are for the backer rewards.

Within 14 days I reached my goal. What I hadn’t counted on was the emotion support I felt by the 70 plus backers who basically said, ”Yes! We want to support your mission statement and partner with you on this dream.”

I have been asked about crowdfunding. I realized that there were lots of little details and things that would have been helpful to know before and during my campaign.

I decided to do something pretty crazy. Run another Kickstarter campaign!

Only this time instead of books, I will be setting up an Etsy store with my newly created cookie stamps!

My goal is to not just tell people what I did AFTER the campaign is over and products are shipped, my goal is to include people in the week-to-week process.

I will be hosting short videos on my site, and have do-able checklists for those contemplating their own Kickstarter or crowd funded campaign. After 4 weeks of setting up my Kickstarter I will launch it so others can watch it live and see what I am doing to promote my product to potential backers. It comes down to having a great plan in place before you get started. Amazingly enough, when I did more research I realized the most important element in the campaign was being able to leverage “story” in a way that made an emotional connection verses a financial appeal to potential audience.

If you are interested in learning more,  join me at www.marciseither.com. I will be launching my Kickstarter concept checklists from Sept 1^st-30 and launching my actually Kickstarter on Oct 1^st in honor of National Cookie Day!

Checklist

What is your mission statement, your goal?

What would you like to launch?

Why would others be interested in it?

Is there something else on the market that is similar?

Is your project do-able within a reasonable amount of time?

Is crowdfunding your best option for moving forward with your goal?

“In his heart and man plans hs course, but the Lord determines his steps.”  Proverbs 16:9