One of the first steps an entrepreneur will take when preparing to launch a startup in South East Asia is to prepare a business plan.
Through the development of your own business plan, you may have developed a marketing plan, a product development timeline and more.
Everything from product development and marketing to leasing or buying office space, hiring employees and more can cost a small fortune.
Startups generally have a very limited amount of capital and minimal income generation capabilities initially, but they have significant expenses. As an entrepreneur, you may be scouring your fundraising options to find the funds you need to move your new business onward to success. A relatively new concept to consider is crowdfunding.
What Is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is a popular new method for generating funds for startups.
In the past, entrepreneurs had to create a formal presentation to a limited number of wealthy investors with hopes of raising funds.
Crowdfunding, however, provides you with the opportunity to list your business online for average as well as wealthy investors to view. They can read through your business plan, learn about your products or services and more all through your online presentation of your business.
Some investors may contribute a very small amount, and others may contribute heavily in exchange for a share of ownership in the business.
This is an increasingly popular method of fundraising around the world, including in South East Asia markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and others.
Learn More: Crowdfunding Resource Library
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- Indiegogo vs Kickstarter: Which is Best for Your Crowdfunding Campaign?
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- Crowdfunding Fulfillment: Product Delivery to YOUR Backers
- How to Choose the Right Platform for YOUR Next Crowdfunding Project
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How South East Asian Businesses Are Benefiting From Crowdfunding
South East Asian markets provide excellent opportunities for entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.
With a significant marketplace to offer products and services in, affordable labor and other incentives, you could not choose a better environment to start your business in.
However, you do still need funds to get your startup off the ground, and crowdfunding is the right solution for many.
Through crowdfunding, you may be able to easily locate the funds that your business needs so that you can spend your time and energy focused on running your new business.
What to Look For in a Crowdfunding Platform
With the increasing popularity of crowdfunding in South East Asia, there are numerous platforms currently available for you to consider using.
Some investors will choose to work with just one, and others may place a listing on multiple top platforms for enhanced results.
When searching for a platform to use:
- Take note of the number of investors the platform has worked with as well as how much money has been raised through the platform.
- Review some of the other companies listed on the site to learn more about how much each individual company has raised over a limited period of time.
- In addition, focus on the cost of the listings.
Some platforms provide you with the opportunity to create and post a listing for free, but many do charge at least a nominal listing fee. Some offer premium placement for a higher fee.
Top Crowdfunding Sites in South East Asia
From Kickstarter and Indiegogo to EquityNet and others, there are a seemingly endless number of crowdfunding platforms to use.
As you might imagine, many platforms come and go, and only a handful have an established reputation in the industry.
Generally, you may find better results when working with one of the top crowdfunding platforms that has built a solid reputation and that has a loyal list of investor followers.
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and EquityNet all boast a high success rate and provide the ability to work with qualified investors.
Determining Your Financial Needs
After you have found the crowdfunding platform or platforms that you want to use to raise money for your startup, you will then need to create a thoughtful, enticing profile to post online.
You can draw some of your inspiration from your business plan. However, you will also need to list the amount of funds that you are trying to raise, and many sites ask you how those funds will be allocated.
Keep in mind that you can create future crowdfunding profiles for additional financial needs.
With this in mind, it may be best to develop a current profile that shows your immediate and short-term need for funds. Long-term needs can be addressed at a later date.
Crowdfunding makes it easier than ever before for South East Asian startup businesses to find the funds they need.
The financial needs of a startup may be significant, but rest assured that you can find the money you need to allocate toward marketing, product development, establishing your business office and more through crowdfunding.
Simply take time today to begin exploring the different crowdfunding platforms as a first step, and soon, you will have raised all of the money you currently need.
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