Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors. This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals—primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms—and leverages all of these networks for greater reach and exposure of your funding efforts.

Most entrepreneurs claim that raising money is the most difficult part of starting or growing a business. In fact, for black business owners raising funds is so difficult that businesses either die due to a lack of financing, or they are never launched because the entrepreneur didn't have the cash to start the business.

But now, everyone can use crowdfunding to raise capital and start your dream business or grow the business you're currently operating, using the the perks of leveraging the crowd. 

Crowdfunding is essentially the opposite approach to the way mainstream would finance your businesses. Traditionally, if you want to raise capital to start a business or launch a new product, you would need to pack up your business plan, market research, and prototypes, and then shop your idea around to wealthy individuals or institutions such as banks, angel investors, and venture capital firms. 

Whereas, crowdfunding platforms give you, the entrepreneur, a single platform to build, showcase, and share your business pitch...and backers come to you. This approach dramatically streamlines the mainstream model. Traditionally, you’d spend months sifting through your personal network, vetting potential investors, spending your own time and money to get in front of them. With crowdfunding, it’s much easier for you to get your opportunity in front of more interested parties and give them more ways to help grow your business, from investing a few dollars to hundreds, maybe event thousands of dollars, in exchange for a first-run product or some other type of reward.