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www.HartfordBusiness.com November 16, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 19 BIZ BOOKS Tips for building a successful crowdfunding campaign "A Crowdfunder's Strategy Guide — Build a Better Business by Building Community" by Jamey Stegmaier (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $19.95). While many small businesses turn to crowdfunding to raise funds, not many attempts are successful. Stegmaier's seven successful Kickstarter campaigns, and the suc- cessful and failed attempts of others, helped him create a crowdfunding template for increasing the odds of suc- cess. Here's what you'll learn: Developing a platform for your launch will takes months, not days. Look for information about similar products online (e.g. product sites, crowdfunding sites, sell- ers, blogs, trade publications, YouTube, etc.). Note their fea- tures; read their reviews. Iden- tify your unique value. At least 90 days prior to launch, start building a network to spread the word. This starts with a weekly blog (one to three entries per week) that creates inter- est in your product and provides content useful to its readers. They'll tell others. Sub- scribing to other blogs related to your project and providing comments helps you build a following for yours, too. Send out samples of your product to serious followers and others with whom you've had close interaction; solicit and listen to their feedback. Closely study crowdfund- ing campaigns that deal with customer demographics simi- lar to those of your product. Pay close attention to their models. Look for their "how." Offer feedback on preview pages; provide comments on campaign pages. Backing some projects helps, too, because you'll gain insight about timelines for delivery. Create a budget for your project factor- ing in a number of different outcomes rela- tive to being able to meet demand on time and ship worldwide. Also remember that you'll have to account for collecting and paying state sales tax on online sales. Pay close attention to production scheduling; you don't want disappointed customers. Stegmaier's experience shows that a "keep-it-simple" approach to your product makes for successful campaigns, too. Adding more options from which backers can choose usually creates problems with manufactur- ing, cost control and on-time fulfillment. You also have to decide how much money you need to raise. Don't expect crowdfunding to cover the expense of a product launch. There are no guarantees that the project will reach its funding goal. Have enough financial skin in the game to ensure there's an initial stock of product so fulfillment starts quickly. Stegmaier points out that asking for large amounts may turn off potential backers because they won't believe enough will be raised. They'll do the math: Amount asked for divided by price equals the number of backers needed. Your pre-launch homework isn't done. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression on potential backers. Hire a pro to design your crowdfunding and web pages, press releases and emails. Ensure that all your marketing has a connective, consistent theme. Prior to launch, send out press releas- es to the blogs to which you follow/subscribe and local news outlets, and emails to your network. Just as you hired a pro to design your marketing approach, you may want to hire a PR firm to handle media outlets. Set a realistic deadline for launch day; take into account the time it takes to evaluate comments from those who received samples and those viewing your preview page. Steg- maier points out that, unless there's season- ality involved with your product, there's no right or wrong time to launch a campaign. But launching an incomplete project anytime limits its chance for success. When your cam- paign launches, be prepared to make adjust- ments that incorporate backers' feedback. Check out Stegmaier's blog at kickstart- erlessons.com and Kickstarter's best prac- tices Facebook page (facebook.com/group/ KickstarterBestPractices/). n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak OTHER VOICES Small business to lawmakers: Let us lead the way By Andrew Markowski I n a perfect world, the most recent budget issues confronted by the Malloy adminis- tration would have already been addressed in this year's legislative session. Unfortunately, even though many in the business community were calling for deeper spending cuts and warning of a looming fiscal crisis worse than what had been projected, a majority of lawmak- ers chose to take the easy way out and ignore the overall spending and structural problems facing Connecticut. Just a few months into this fiscal year's contemptuous budget it was announced that thanks to an outland- ish spending problem and unrealistic rev- enue assumptions, over $100 million in services to the state's most vulnerable were slashed. Medicaid pay- ments to hospitals failed to be made and munici- pal aid grants "lapsed" so checks were never sent. Now we are faced with a deficit so complex and destructive, the key players tasked with solv- ing the riddle of our fiscal problems cannot even agree on how large the problem is before trying to determine how much spending needs to be cut to produce a positive economic result. Apparently it took a recent announcement from Malloy's budget chief to wake everyone up from the misguided notion that we were on the right track to economic growth and job cre- ation. Stock market volatility was cited as the single most contributory factor in deciding to make the cuts, but the question must be asked: Why is Connecticut in such a precarious and delicate position that stock market uncertainty leads to reducing services to those who need it most? There was clearly a complete lack of prudent long-term financial planning that never would have existed if the state were held as accountable as small businesses are when it comes to balancing the books. Unfortunately, the families of the tens of thousands of people across Connecticut employed by small busi- nesses now have the potential to be collateral damage if significant changes are not made. Small business owners throughout the state are required to balance their budgets, appropri- ately project deficits and account for both short- and long-term financial hardships. The fact that there are currently three wildly different deficit projections being bantered about is only the most recent sign that there is a fundamental problem with how state government operates. Small businesses across the state have been making tough decisions for years because of diminished economic growth. It is long past due that we hold our elected officials and state government to the same standard. While the small business community appro- priately applauds the Governor for his recent acknowledgement that new or higher taxes should not be part of the solution to an ongo- ing budget crisis, the long-term stabilization of our economy is paramount and it begins with addressing the size and scope of Connecticut's bureaucracy, implementing sound fiscal prac- tices, and reducing the tax burden for all. The Governor's recent call to reduce the size of the state workforce and restructure retiree benefits is a welcomed step in the right direc- tion, but most small business owners would like to see additional proposals discussed. This should include implementing a defined-contri- bution (401k type) plan for all newly hired state employees, just like most small businesses and their employees have, in order to lessen the bur- den on the state pension system. Next, we should all agree that a leaner, more efficient state government that provides essen- tial services for our residents without bogging down taxpayers with unsustainable tax rates and overwhelming cost demands is vital. With an ever-shrinking "pie" to work with, lawmak- ers can emulate what small business owners do best, make tough decisions and work smart- er with reduced resources. Finally, lawmakers must focus on a sta- ble, coherent tax policy that truly provides economic growth for all sectors, allowing everyone to benefit. That means going fur- ther than the Governor's recently proposed corporate tax reforms. While Connecticut's reputation among businesses certainly needs a boost after this year's budget nego- tiations, small business is the true engine of economic growth for our state and the pro- posed tax reforms, while positive, will have little, if any, direct impact on them. The Governor and legislators can begin to compliment the proposed and necessary corpo- rate tax reforms by completely eliminating the business-entity tax once and for all. This bienni- al burden penalizes small businesses purely for existing and is an administrative nuisance at the very least. And since an overwhelming major- ity of small business owners pay their business taxes through the personal income tax, as pass through entities, income tax reductions must be included in the discussions in order to empower small businesses to thrive in what is currently a stagnant-growth environment. n Andrew Markowski is the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) state director in Connecticut Andrew Markowski ▶ ▶ Create a budget for your project factoring in a number of different outcomes relative to being able to meet demand on time and ship worldwide. ▶ ▶ Small businesses across the state have been making tough decisions for years because of diminished economic growth. It is long past due that we hold our elected officials and state government to the same standard.