Should Students Use Fundraisers as a Starting Point for Their Entrepreneurial Ideas?

For upon |Many of the brightest and most successful ideas in the world today come from college students. One of the most famous ideas born from students was the development of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommate Eduardo Saverin. It is far from the only ingenuity crafted by students, though.

So, if college students have no shortage of ideas, what’s the problem with getting those ideas off the ground and into fruition? For many students, the answer to that is funding. After all, not all students come from a place of wealth.

A standard answer to this is to fundraise for money. However, if a student wants to find the best way to raise funds for their ideas, they need to know how to generate the funds they need to accomplish their goals.

Potential to Get Cash Fast But You Have To Do It Right

Fundraising has now moved to the internet. With websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter have done away with the idea of only getting fundraising from people you know and people you physically come into contact with. Now, students can post their ideas and ask for funding online and potentially get the help of complete strangers.

Because of this, a student can potentially raise thousands of dollars for their ideas by explaining them on the internet.

It isn’t a surefire way to gain money, though. Not just any idea will be supported – the plan has to be unique and new. For instance, if a student wants to run an essay writing service, to win over potential people who will donate to the idea, they will need to differentiate their service from other similar services. If they want to win someone over, they will need to present their approach as something novel.

Done correctly, fundraising can get a student entrepreneur the funds they need. On the other hand, if the idea isn’t presented with the ingenuity it may hold, the fundraising may fail.

Online Fundraising Platforms

As noted before, a lot of fundraising has moved online. It comes with the added benefit of reaching a wider audience than was historically available.

There is a definite downside to this shift. That is that most fundraising sites charge a fee for using their platform. Instead of being a flat fee, though, this is often a percentage of what the student earns. Kickstarter, for instance, takes a 5% fee as well as has payment and processing fees that sit between

Create a Community

When a student starts a fundraiser, they are creating a community and a following before they even get their business or idea off the ground. When someone donates money to an idea, they are showing their support and, by nature, they will want to see how the thought they put their money into will play out.

On the opposing side, it’s essential that students deliver on their ideas. In the case that they don’t live up to expectations, they will start off with a base of people who are frustrated or even angry with their brand or product.

Conclusion

College campuses are usually rife with students who have ideas just waiting to be put into the physical realm. Unfortunately, what most college students have in ingenuity, they sometimes lack the funding to take a view from its origin into a practical point.

Finding these funds can be a challenge. Luckily, there are plenty of options that can help students to reach their entrepreneurial goals – such as fundraising – and each should be considered carefully before being implemented.