Help me please.

[mickle]

A big thank you to those who've made contributions so far!!!

 

[Andrew_P]

A big thank you to those who've made contributions so far!!!

Hope.its going ok I am a .it tight for cash at the moment.

It had occurred to me it might be a better approach to ask for a fund raising mission to fund find some bikes with a fixed target. It feels a bit open ended and sounds like no demo bikes no start up?

Anyway the bump was free and still thinking of ways forward..

 

[mickle]

Hope.its going ok I am a .it tight for cash at the moment.

It had occurred to me it might be a better approach to ask for a fund raising mission to fund find some bikes with a fixed target. It feels a bit open ended and sounds like no demo bikes no start up?

Anyway the bump was free and still thinking of ways forward..

That's a very good point. I was keen to avoid the GoFund/Kickstarter route because I know they take a percentage. I might revisit that - and set a fixed target for a tangible thing, such as the purchase of demo bikes. Also, having had less than a stellar response to my various public begs to date, it's obvious that I need to to raise it from 'Mick asking for a few quid from mates' to a more professional level. One of my friends has made some very positive noises about investing proper money in it - but he's just effed off on holiday for two weeks...

 

[Andrew_P]

That's a very good point. I was keen to avoid the GoFund/Kickstarter route because I know they take a percentage. I might revisit that - and set a fixed target for a tangible thing, such as the purchase of demo bikes. Also, having had less than a stellar response to my various public begs to date, it's obvious that I need to to raise it from 'Mick asking for a few quid from mates' to a more professional level. One of my friends has made some very positive noises about investing proper money in it - but he's just effed off on holiday for two weeks...

One of the toughest thing raising money also I found the sales reps from companies that were really friendly and helpful when I worked for a big firm were less interested once I wanted to go it alone

Sure you have done this beforef but locally it seems really popular to arrange a cycle event at a local council run outdoor athletics stadium to have a load of demo bikes and invite schools etc along to come have a go. It might also solve the bike problem in that you could maybe convince the various bike firms to deliver the bikes to one place for just one day bit like a trade show, I would think they must have bikes around they use for display etc.

I honestly think there must be some public or charity funding available to a start up like what you want to do.

 

[srw]

That's a very good point. I was keen to avoid the GoFund/Kickstarter route because I know they take a percentage. I might revisit that - and set a fixed target for a tangible thing, such as the purchase of demo bikes. Also, having had less than a stellar response to my various public begs to date, it's obvious that I need to to raise it from 'Mick asking for a few quid from mates' to a more professional level. One of my friends has made some very positive noises about investing proper money in it - but he's just effed off on holiday for two weeks...

The sort of money you're looking for definitely needs proper funding* rather than casual asking around - which also means some cession of control to the funders. That might not be a bad thing if you've got funders who are supportive but demanding and make sure you do things properly and deliver on commitments.

*but it's far too small for professional investors - which again is probably helpful.