The key values for a company seeking support through crowdfunding is to be true and honest. Before thinking about the more technical and financial aspects, you need to think about who you and your business are. Integrity and credibility are two concepts that people, in particular investors, have to connect to you in order to trust in your business.
But what do integrity and credibility mean and how can you build them for your company?
Integrity means to do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do. It is not something related to a situation, but it is a state of mind. To build it you must be honest and you have to be brave enough to face all kind of truths. Be careful you don’t over promise.
And what about credibility? Credibility is something that you build over the time, it is created from the history of your words and actions.
Some pillars to build credibility about you and your company are:
- Be yourself: talk about yourself and about the people that are part of your project. Remember that people relate to people, not to businesses or products. Share your experience, tell your story from your personal perspective. If you are authentic and genuine you will probably engage the people interested in your project.
- Be honest: as we said before, always be honest and never hide your mistakes. Do not lie about your past, otherwise people will never trust you again.
- Be consistent: any investor interested in your business will look for you on Google and if there is not coherence between what you say and what he/she finds on the social platforms and in the media, it will impact the likelihood of investment. Check your website, blog and social media to verify your image is professional, consistent and positive.
- Be knowledgeable: know your product inside-out, master it. An investor expects you to know everything about it, from its production, distribution, cost and market to the future expectations about it.
- Be supported: like what happens in the restaurants, people follow other people. That is why from the very beginning you should get supporters, testimonials and recommendations that will support you once your campaign will be launched.
Tell your story, express your dreams, the motivations that have brought you to believe in your project. Introduce your team, show people, ideas, motivations, not only numbers. Stories define us, give meaning to our actions, justify our choices, and invoke our feelings. Storytelling is effective because it touches the customer’s or investor’s emotions. If the story is well told people are keen to believe it.
Part of your story is a credible business plan. In it you should show your past accomplishments, define a credible and relevant market size, clearly define your customer’s needs and showcase realistic financial expectations.
After you have read this post, take a few moments to focus about yourself. Think about who you are, what you want and how you want people to see you and your business. All this action will help you building your solid business reputation. And remember: integrity is the essence of everything successful (R. Buckminster Fuller).