Our word of the day is “Crowd Funding” Crowdfunding is a way of financing your business

through donations of money from the public. This is commonly done through crowdfunding

websites. Generally, you post your business idea as

a 'campaign idea' onto the website, with a description of your project. If people want

to support your campaign, they can donate money to help you achieve your goal. These

supporters are often called backers. On some websites, you need to set a monetary goal,

and a time frame to reach this goal by. To encourage people to support your campaign,

you can offer incentives and rewards based on amount they donate. These incentives and

rewards can be anything, such as merchandise, acknowledgement, discounts on future purchase

of the product you are developing, etc. For example, you can set that for every donation

of $10, you will provide an acknowledgement to the donor on your product’s website,

and for every donation of $20, you will reward a 5% discount on the purchase of your product

once it is produced. The advantages of crowdfunding over other

sources of funding can include: 1. a customer base who are already committed

to your product 2. the opportunity for you to interact directly

with your customers, who are also your investors 3. the opportunity to get feedback from your

customers while your product is being developed and tested

4. free word-of-mouth marketing for your product through your backers

5. instead of providing a share to investors, you still own your business in full

6. Lower commitment and risk -if you don't reach your goal, you don't have to commit).