Have you embraced the concept of crowdfunding or preselling products and services? Guest, Shannon Lohr, Founder, and CEO of Factory45, shares how building a clientele wanting your product before it’s available on the market is a great way to mitigate startup costs that can drain your business bank account. LetÊ»s talk about how you can create a plan of attack for launching a successful pre-sales campaign during today’s 15{ish} Minute Coffee Chat.
Have you embraced the concept of crowdfunding or preselling products and services? @thehauoli @iamnomadabout #15{ish} Minute Coffee Chat Click To Tweet
Shannonʻs Bio:
Shannon Lohr is the founder of Factory45, the online business school trusted by over 500 fashion entrepreneurs since 2014.
Over the years she’s worked with aspiring designers, all over the globe, to launch or grow their brands in a way that’s better for people and the planet.
Shannon got her start in 2010 when she co-founded {r}evolution apparel, a sustainable clothing brand for female travelers and minimalists that was featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.com.
Our Coffee Cup Selfie With Shannon
Of course, the first thing we love doing with our guests is a Coffee Cup Selfie. Believe it or not, we have over 70 of these selfies and they arenʻt going anywhere!
What did we ask Shannon?
1. Why is crowdfunding and preselling important for an entrepreneur to think about and know about?
Should you invest in your idea? Should you, all the should, should, should, should not and so pre-selling whether it is a product, which is what Shannon focuses on, but it can be a service really allows you that freedom to test the market before you invest thousands of dollars. Let’s say in a production run of a physical product for me, it’s fashion, but it could be anything,
Shannon doesnÊ»t think this is for everybody, but more and more, it’s becoming one of the best ways for new businesses to launch.
2. Can you apply the same tactics to services as you can to products?
Shannon feels the service-based entrepreneurs have it even easier because they don’t have to do product development, create samples or patterns, find a manufacturer, or do the whole look book, you know? So yes, if you’re in a service-based industry, you can do this.
Selena realized that ʻthe productʻ if service-based would be us and that reframed the way she thought of utilizing Crowdfunding tactics.
3. What is your number one tip for a successful pre-selling campaign?
Build an audience! Whatever crowdfunding platform you use, there will be some discoverability but for the most part, YOU need to drive the traffic to help raise those funds. Build that email list, your social media base, where ever your crowd is hanging out. Because you will want to drive them from there to your crowd-funding platform to help you raise that financial goal.
Anna asked a great follow-up what if you DONʻT have an audience. Shannon recommended joining Facebook groups, searching YouTube videos for products/services similar to yours, and seeing what users are commenting to ʻWhat are they looking for?ʻ ʻ What are they following?ʻ ʻWhat do they still not understand?ʻ.
Toolkit
Donʻt forget we have some great resources for you as well here.
Find Shannon here.
www.facebook.com/groups/factory45workshop
Tip Jar
Thanks to Caitlyn Eldridge for providing this showʻs tip jar.
Consider long-term disability insurance. Also never deduct your premiums for long-term disability insurance. If you do-it creates a taxable income where it didnʻt have to be. So use it after-tax dollars to pay for it.
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