How Can Crowdfunding For Women Help Support Women

By Lelia Hall


As the investors put it, the numbers in the Wall Street Journal Report do not lie. The trend in this report has shown that women are able to outperform their male counterparts whenever running the crowdfunding campaigns in which the target is to raise capital meant for their ventures. Success in crowdfunding for women is more natural than many people may think. It comes from their natural traits such as being more communicative and expressive. This means that they are in a better position to tell their story in a way that is able to catch the emotional core of the backers and other contributors.

The statics from the Wall Street Journal Reports seems to paint business as a male dominated field. Of the 100 chief executives of venture-backed companies, only 8 are female (8%). Worse still, only 17% of the board seats in the Fortune 500 companies are occupied by females. Nationwide, 30% of the companies are female owned. This is clearly a scary picture to the female entrepreneurs, especially the startups.

As a powerful source of seed capital and a good alternative for business startups, this method of funding enables the entrepreneur to tap into a large number of individuals of different backgrounds (crowd), each investing a small amount through a virtual network or a social network. Millions or businesses are funded each year and billions of funds are raised through this method.

It can be done through a social network or a virtual network. Today, billions or funds are raised benefiting millions of startups, most owned by female entrepreneurs. Some of the leading sites for crowdfunding include Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub. Most of these are broad-based and do not target any particular gender. However, there are sites that specialize in women crowdfunding. A good example is Plum Alley.

It is a site that is made of women with the aim of helping other women success. On top of availing the much-needed startup capital; it comes with additional benefits such as expert advice to the members. Experts all industries are brought to advise and educate the members in seminars and the experts get paid for their services.

This comes with many advantages. The ladies are in the position to share ideas and get mentored in addition to getting the much-needed capital for startups or business growth. They pay experts from across different industries to educate, motivate, and act as a role model for the upcoming female entrepreneurs.

On average, males are more likely to excel in business bitching than females. The females are more conservative and may not make ridiculous projections or exhibit bravado as their male colleagues, and thus needs an alternative playing field.

It also comes as an alternative source of capital that is better as compared to pitching in a room full of intimidating male audience (business angel) where the ladies are likely to feel intimidated and less successful. In this manner, they get to tell their story in a way that captures the emotion of the targeted investor and thus can easily succeed. In this method, you get to use your network of colleagues, friends, family members, and vendors as a powerful marketing force.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment