A little reflection - Part 4
Yesterday we left off at why I took time off from this project, but also that because of difficulties in getting funding, the business plan was changed to set the company to grow organically.
After those 2 months I got back onto working on this project and when I took to decision to go ahead with it, I registered the company and Hire an Artist was officially registered. That money it took to register the company was the first time I had invested money into it, the first step to my commitment and financial interest to it's success. From 12/09/2014 what was just an idea, a project, became a company.
It was 13 days later that I launched a Kickstarter campaign. I have to say though I made foolish mistakes here;
- Setting a goal for £25,000
- Launching knowing very little about successfully funded projects
- Launching the campaign when no more than 150 artists were aware of the project.
- Making a video that wasn't fit to purpose
- Terrible rewards
- Poor project description and grammar mistakes
In retrospect, I definitely rushed things and was infinitely stupid. Within those 13 days I merely dedicated my time to producing visual content to be included on the project; Images and the video. Including images that were used in the video. What I didn't do was read into what makes a successful project, read into how Kickstarter works and how you can improve your chances of success. I simply read on the Kickstarter website that it helps to build a community behind your project, and I stupidly went ahead and was like "Yep, that's all I need to hear" and began working.
Stupid, stupid stupid. I look back on the Kickstarter page now and I cringe at what I did. I didn't even use the smaller figures from the recalculated costs after the business plan change. I didn't even use the artwork from the artists I spoke with, the artists that helped create Hire an Artist, why?! No verbal commentary or anything either, really impersonal move. But perhaps that's just a testament to the kind of person I have been for most of my life, preferring to hide away than put myself forward. In one word the whole thing was, stupid.
After all the slating I have done about this I imagine you're confident to say the funding was a failure. And yes it was, not a single penny. The moment I launched it there was no activity to the page and it quickly descended down the page rankings and successful funding was impossible, no matter how hard I tried to promote it.
I'm in talking about another attempt at Kickstarter fundraising with my business partner. With my past experience I've learned from my mistakes and I can no doubt create a Kickstarter campaign that would be far more successful in comparison. But I doubt if it's still ready, I don't think enough people know about it yet. We'll see.
After the Kickstarter failed I decided this would all have the financed by my own personal money. I'm far from being rich or financially privileged. Hell, my Mum had to start her life anew with literally nothing but two little babies under each arm (Me and my brother). But I figured at this point "If I'm so confident that this company would be successful, why am I not investing my own money into it? I'm going to get it back right?". It's that same kind of thing that investors ask people who pitch "How much have you personally invested into this?", if the pitcher says none the investor will respond "If you haven't even invested some of your own money into this, how do you expect me to invest some of mine?".
So I made the decision to put aside a majority portion of my own money into this project, thank god parents charge cheap board rates to live at home! And the Government provides maintenance grants! I've been very lucky to not have been 'put under' by this decision.
From this point we now have a company with lots of big failures, but the company also benefited from acquiring a lot of my own money, more than what I kept to myself in fact. Money and a plan, that's all you need to help a company grow.
Next time we will talk about how I next went onto searching for web developers to help create this platform for art!
