Looking for Crowdfunding? These Five Websites Could Help You!

Until a few decades ago, only the rich and affluent were able to start a business. And then came the revolution in the banking sector that made it possible for anyone with collateral and a viable business idea could float their enterprise. However, the new era of startups has given rise to an all-new trend.

You can now borrow money from people across the globe to launch your business. All you need to do is float your business idea among people willing to fund and get their approval. Yes, you guessed it right, we are talking about crowdfunding. Globally numerous companies and individuals have raised capital through crowdfunding. If you are in a creative profession and wish to get the word out about your business and raise funds, here are five websites that could help you!

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a company that is based out of Brooklyn and is a public benefit corporation. It is a great platform for sourcing funds for all your business needs. Be it theater, comics, film, design, product. You will find investors willing to give you money. By 2019 December, the platform had received over $4.6 billion pledges from over 17.2 million backers. And all these funds went to around 445,000 projects, most of which were for people’s creative pursuits. Most financial advisors and startup entrepreneurs rate this as the best website to float your campaign to receive crowdfunding.

Patreon

Patreon is a membership platform that provides all the tools content creators would need for running a subscription service. It also helps the creative people earn a regular income from their subscribers too. So, the reason we mention this to the list of crowdfunding is simple. While it is not a direct crowding funding tool, it helps artists and content creators build and audience, raise funds, and build a recurring income source.

So, this is an ideal platform for all the creative professionals out there to get the news of their business out and make a fortune! With over 100,000 creative professionals currently registered on the website, Patreon has over 2.5 million active users. However, this platform offers its services at a nominal charge. Yes, they have a 2.9 percent fee from all the income the registered users make. Besides that, they also take around 35 cents from every pledge you get.

LendingClub

This peer-to-peer lending company was the first of it’s kind to register its securities to offer loan trading to a secondary market by listing on the Securities and Exchange Commission. The inception of this company dates back to 2006, in San Francisco, California, and currently has an operating income of $−153.4 million. Lendingclub is now one of the most reputed platforms to secure loans online.

And it takes only seven business days for you to get the funds you need. But make sure your credit score stands at a minimum of 600 before you try to raise funds for your business. While it offers to crowdfund to business ideas, it also makes sure that the entrepreneurs are trustworthy so that the backers do not lose their money!

RocketHub

The inception of this company dates back to 2010 as an online crowdfunding platform. However, they had their first user in September 2009 during its soft launch. And since then, numerous musicians, scientists, filmmakers, photographers, and philanthropists have benefitted from it! As a businessperson, we understand your first question would be about RocketHub’s business model. If you are wondering how they make money, do not worry, it’s not selling your data. Instead, they charge a four percent commission on every transaction besides the four percent as credit card processing fees.

They deduct these fees automatically from your final donation amount. RocketHub’s success as a crowdfunding platform increased by several folds when it found a mention in the list of  US Department of State’s 12 global partners. This was a great honor for the firm, given that it was listed alongside giant corporations like Coca-Cola. With operations in over 190 countries, we are sure that RocketHub could help you launch your crowdfunding campaign with ease and drive funds to your account for launching your dream venture!

These are just a few of the many crowdfunding platforms available online, which will help your business get started. However, before you launch your crowdfunding campaign, make sure you have a foolproof plan. Remember, this could be the first soft launch and market testing for your business idea as the people who offer to fund businesses on these platforms are just other common people like the rest of us. And if you have their backing for your business idea, you probably will find success in the real-world scenario too!