When I talk to people who are putting together a crowdfunding project, the one glaring glitch is the lack of a clear plan for their product, idea or business. They seem to think they need to throw in everything they’re working on or ever thought of to do. Many of us have multiple projects we work on and most surround our core business, but when you're trying to raise funds to move forward in your business, the need for clarity is paramount.

Think of getting your focus clear like you would if you have to give a 60 second pitch. It’s your elevator pitch, if you will. What is it you want? How much money do you need to get it? How will you use the money? Who are you working with (your team)? How did you come up with the idea? What’s your timeline to completion, to being up and running and ready for your next phase? These are the simple questions, but people seem to dance around them in their pitches. Be clear. Be exact. Be laser focused on what you want. How else is anyone going to know, if you don’t tell them.

I have read a lot of copy and seen videos for pitches lately and at the end I’m shaking my head and saying, “what in the heck was that pitch for?” A book? A book tour? A movie? A book and a movie? And what was it about? Water? How to be independent of dominating men? How to start over after you've been abused? How to save the world? Come on! Help us out here. What do you want? Do you want to do research? To move to manufacturing? If I get lost and I already talked to you about your project, then how is anyone else supposed to know what you want?

So, in trying to coach people to write clear words about their project, I go back to basic journalism: who, what, where, when and how. I advise them to take out all the extra words, all the adjectives, all the hyping language and boil down their thoughts to one paragraph or two. Make each of the 5 “W’s” above into a separate paragraph, if need be. Who are you? What do you want to do? Where are you doing it? When are you hoping to do it? And, how are you going to use the money, do the project, get to success?

Pulling together all of your resources to create a viable and successful crowdfunding project can be a lot more than you expected in the beginning. Before you even begin to write your copy, you need to think about the marketing campaign you'll need to put into action. How many friends and family do you know who having mailing lists, Facebook friends and Twitter followers?  Can you make a good video? Do you have a good picture of your prototype or a representation of your project, business or idea? Do you know anyone who can help you with publicity, blogging, getting on the radio, TV or an interview in the local newspapers or magazines? How good are you at social media? Do you go to networking events in your area? Do you have the ability to do webinars or teleseminars and invite your “crowd” to talk about your project?

I don't mean to sound in any way discouraging to anyone who wants to post a project on our site or anyone else’s, but if you think this is going to be a stroll along the beach, then crowdfunding is not for you. It takes work and focus and a good plan to do a successful crowdfunding project.  I should mention that some of my favorite projects have been totally “off the wall”, but they had a cohesive plan and executed it well.  Creating a business requires you to do due diligence on your competition, feasibility of your timeline, demand, market saturation, location, cost of goods, and much more. Researching other crowdfunding projects to see what works and what doesn't is no less important. This will help you to clear out all the doubt and fuzziness about what you’re doing and zero in on exactly what you want to do and how much money you need.

Crowdfunding is an amazing opportunity to get to your dreams, but it is not money served up to you on a silver platter. It’s still business and where money is involved; people are pretty serious about the whys and wherefores. These are people who want to believe in you. Give them the best you've got.

Posted From ; http://crowdfundinglive.com/events/focus-its-what-makes-or-breaks-a-crowdfunding-project