One of the most overlooked potential sources of capital for your venture, is your own personal network. We are not just talking friends and family, but your wider business and social networks as well.
Naturally, the first port of call for any private funding campaign should always be your close associates, your friends and family who have known you for most, if not all of your life.
These are the people who understand you best. They have seen the hard work and the passion you have devoted to your venture. They know that you are putting everything into this, as they have seen the sacrifices you have made and understand your commitment levels first-hand.
If anyone will back you, so long as they have the capacity, your friends and family will. But what about your network beyond your friends and family?
Social media has opened a plethora of networking opportunities for us all. If you start looking beyond your immediate friends and family, you can start to see some exciting and sometimes surprising, untapped potential in terms of possible investment for your venture.
Let’s look at some stats. The average LinkedIn user has 1,300 connections. The average Facebook user has 155 friends, while the average Twitter account holder has more than 700 followers.
Start adding these numbers together and you begin to understand that your network is a lot larger than what you may have first thought, particularly when you consider the average social media user has more than 8 different social media accounts on various sites.
Before embarking on any fund-raising campaign, go through all of your social media and other connections and put a list together of all of your contacts. Once you have done that, categorise them into Family & Friends, Business Connections which can include existing or potential clients or customers and Social Connections.
Once you have categorised your connections, the next thing to do is think how you wish to speak with each group, focussing on your tone and messaging. The way you speak with your friends and family will almost certainly be very different to the way you wish to communicate with an old business colleague. Think about your audience and then think about exactly how you wish to come across to them.
Get your first messages out via your relevant social media platforms and then leverage your extended network for help. This means asking people in your extended network to reach out to their close contacts and let them know about your venture/campaign.
These second and third tier network connections can lead to some surprisingly good results that you may never achieve by just focusing on your own immediate contacts.
Once you have reached out to your network via social media, follow up by emailing everyone to let them know about your campaign… and while you are at it, ask your contacts to reach out to their contacts once more, so you can get your message out to as many people as possible.
You can do this easily and effectively through Shadow Foundr’s platform by simply sharing your unique invitational link to your close connections such as your friends, family and followers, whom you personally know. The link provides your contacts with a personal invitation to invest into your campaign.
The invitational link you send them is unique and should anyone invest via the link, they will attract a lower commission fee (please see our fee structure). So there are some very good reasons in terms of efficiency and financial gains, to use this feature.
