Has anyone done crowd funding to grow your business?
I do not own a studio. Some day, that’s a dream, but for now, I am coming up with creative ways to fund my equipment and training so that if I am ever ready to open a studio, I’ll have the education and equipment to do so. The gyms where I work do not have the equipment that i want, and aren’t going to buy it for me. The places where I work don’t pay for my training.
There is some equipment that I want, and it requires training. Total investment = $8,000ish, more than half of which is the education. I want to be early or first to market in my area so I’m not going to say what it is here.
My idea is this. If I do a kick-starter or other crowd funding campaign, I could earn the money to purchase the equipment and training. My “perks” for the levels of donation would be attendance at several special events for my clients, one-on-one training, and for very high donation amounts a set of the client’s own equipment. This allows me to get the training and equipment much sooner than trying to save for it. Normally, I save for things, but I want to be earlier in the market in this case.
Has anyone done this? Is there a better way of funding than kick-starter? I know there are several crowd funding sites…
Generally this is simply called, in business, overhead. I can’t think of any truly useful or portable equipment that costs $4k. Craigslist is a good way to find old equipment cheap that you can refurbish. And guess what; the greatest thing is that most of them don’t require added training. There’s many other options for getting creative in what clients have and are available, such as using bookbags rather than sandbags or a EZ curl bar rather than ViPR. If you really want to own a studio, figure out if you can have the number of clients that will ensure that you can earn a living and cover overhead. Get a loan and buy/rent a place.
Thank you for your opinion, Edward. I have an MBA so I don’t need any definitions of business terms, nor was I seeking advice on opening a studio. My mention of not owning a studio was more by way of explaining that I don’t invest in equipment unless it’s easily portable. I take my ViPRs, my CrossCores (think TRX but on a pulley), my rubber bands, etc. with me from club to club.
I have already decided that this particular project is consistent with my current business model and my future directions in the industry. My sole question was whether others had used crowd funding and with what success. When you think about it, in many ways it’s more prudent than getting a loan. By doing a go, no-go crowd funding, I can determine up front with absolute certainty that I have client backing. My equipment and education are paid for so there is no chance of me losing money, and then what I do in the future (after fulfilling the obligations incurred through the crowd funding) is pure profit.
Although I respect doing things on a budget, I don’t go over-cheap on things, so I won’t be making my own equipment out of bookbags. If you’re doing that, you might check whether your insurance covers you for it, because we had a trainer at one club make his own TRX out of climbing ropes and climbing knots and it got him into big trouble.
Have a great weekend!
