Fundraising On the Brain
Fundraising is a topic on everyone’s mind, probably 90% of the time. How do I either raise the money to start my business or how do I keep evolving the business to keep the money coming in? It’s not easy and it’s something you have to constantly work at. It’s a combination of listening to yourself, planning, executing, and solving a problem.
For me, as I am continuing to establish myself as a gilding original artist, I need to find ways to fund myself. While I do have a day job, I currently do not have excess money to throw in the direction of my dream. While I have cut out every amenity for myself in pursuit of this dream, it’s expensive. It’s luxury and elite and that just what I want it to be. Now how do I take where I am now and get to where I want to be? Here are some things I’m already doing/have done.
Saving a Little from Each Paycheck
This is the downhome American Dream Apple Pie way of doing it. I do put a little aside each month so I can pot money and order supplies as I save enough money to do so. This is the slow and steady turtle wins the race method, and while I will continue to do this, I’m looking for ways to speed up the saving process just a wee bit. Just because you want things to happen faster, doesn’t make you a greedy or horrible person. It just means you are being called to find a way to fund your dream faster. You are being called to be creative in the way you fundraise that might teach you some lessons you need to learn on your journey.
Kickstarter/Crowdfunding
I’ve tried crowdfunding sites for fundraising before and they didn’t work for me. My friends and family have been so supportive, but the idea of glamourous edgy gold leaf glass original art pieces didn’t seem to resonate with that crowd. It’s okay. I realized it’s just not for me.
If you decide to do a crowdsourcing type of fundraiser I urge you to read the fine print. I was trying to raise $10,000 and after income taxes, Kickstarter’s cut and credit card fees, I would only see about half of the money I raised. Do your research, there are ones that don’t take a cut, but there will always be credit card fees.
State Grants
I applied for a few state grants and didn’t receive funding, basically getting feedback that what I was doing wasn’t interesting enough. I intend to continue applying to the state art grants each year until I receive one because I am persistent and know that I’m doing something interesting.
I have to keep reminding myself, Walt Disney was told he wasn’t good enough, Elvis was told he wasn’t good enough, Lucille Ball (one of my idols) was told she wasn’t good enough, and there are so many more incredible people in this world that have succeeded even though the world told them they weren’t good enough. They didn’t listen to the haters and neither will I.
Creative Fundraising
Sometimes you have to get a little creative with your fundraising when the world shoots you down or things aren’t going as quickly as you feel in your gut as they should be going. For people telling you to be patient, sometimes you have to plug your ears and listen to the universe that’s telling you to hurry the fuck up.
Review Music, Clothes, and Other Products
There is a site I came across called Slice of the Pie. This site allows you to sign up and get paid for quick reviews of electronics, clothing, and some random things. It takes me about 20 minutes to earn 25¢. Yup, that’s right. Twenty-five whole cents. Do I do it? Yes. Why? Because that’s 25¢ I wouldn’t have otherwise. And while it might take me too many months to count to afford a book of gold, it’s something that I can do while I’m cooking dinner and wouldn’t otherwise be able to do things to make money.
Review Websites
So this one is similar to the previous one, though it is reviewing websites for real companies that you will know. The site is called User Testing and it’s simple, they give you a site, some instructions, and you talk them through you completing the task. You can make up to $30/hour doing this. I just did my test video and will know in a couple of days if I qualify to do this. I hope I do because it was fun to complete the challenges and see how other people are designing their sites. I see it as a learning experience in User Experience that I can tie back to my site in how it looks or its overall experience.
Entering a Fitness Competition
Yes, you heard it right, I’ve entered a fitness competition. We all need to workout to fuel our creative mind, why not win some fundraising money for your company at the same time? The thought came to me one night in the wee hours as I was scrolling through Instagram as I was waiting for a video to render. I scrolled past an idol of mine, Ashley Horner. This woman is ripped and gorgeous and everything. She’s holding a fitness competition called Transform You, it’s a 10-week transformation challenge where if you win, you receive $5,000 and a visit from Ashley Horner. The money would allow me to purchase all the materials I need to get my studio finished set up and start making content the way I want to.
This is the one that I’m most excited about but also most nervous about. I usually make excuses for why I can’t work out or why I need to work instead of a workout. This gives me the reason to workout because it is for my business. I don’t know how well I will do but you never know if you don’t try right?! So let’s go let’s do this. Let’s win some business seed money.
Fundraising After Rona
These are some things I thought about to fundraise but with the Rona, I’ll sit these out.
Deliver Food
So I have signed up to do this, though I haven’t done it. A reason I thought about doing it before the Rona was to get the word about me out to as many people as possible. When delivering food, I could staple a thank you message with my Instagram to the sack and hopefully grow my following. Might as well make money and do some marketing at the same time right?!
Selling Free Stuff from Craigslist
This is something my friend Lauryn is amazing at. She flips stuff so well all the time, but it’s something that takes patience and a lot of time. Something I probably won’t do. I don’t want to invest this much time in looking for pieces that would be flippable. Though other than the gas, space, and time, it’s a good ROI.
Using Rover to Walk Dogs
I used to work on Rover and it’s a great platform. They do take a lot of the money you make, but if you’re just starting, it’s a good place to get started. With my day job, I do get to work from home a day a week that I could use to walk dogs during lunchtime, or even just check on dogs. I probably wouldn’t stay and dogsit only because it takes a tremendous amount of time and I’ve got Mr. Charlie that likes it when I’m home cuddling with him.
Fundraising Wrap Up
Welcome to the inside thought process of my brain when I’m trying to figure out how to do fundraising for my business. It might be weird, but it’s just some small additional things I’m trying to do to raise money to buy the supplies I need to do my art. One day I will look back on this time and laugh about what I’m doing to raise the money, but I will be grateful that I did. Sometimes, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to find creative ways to raise money and go after your dream. Some people are not going to believe in you. Some people are going to secretly hope you fail. It’s you that has to have faith in what the universe is calling you to do. Plug your ears say some la la la’s to your haters and get to work. This dream isn’t going to build itself.
