In recent years, companies big and small have started to experiment with crowdsourcing- opting to hire one or more individuals online for a specific job or task that would traditionally be assigned to a single person. The practice typically encourages creativity, promotes efficiency, and can help to connect businesses directly with consumers. What’s not to love about that?
Here are a few ways your business can jump on the crowdsourcing wave:
Crowd-fund with Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a platform for individuals with specific ideas to attract small donations to fund their project. The platform lets you keep complete control over your product, and reduces risk for both you and the donors. Fundraising is all or nothing, which encourages donations and allows you to get feedback on your ideas without investing too much in them. If your business involves an innovative product or highly specialized aspects, Kickstarter could be the perfect place to raise the capital needed for your initial overhead.
Things to Consider
Getting Donors- Your project or proposed business must be creative and unique. Run of the mill businesses or products will have a hard time setting themselves apart from other projects on the site, and will not garner donations. If you can explain why your product needs to happen or is an improvement over an existing product, you have a better shot. Listen to user reactions and incorporate the feedback.
Raising Money- If you fail to reach your proposed timeline, the money donated will be returned, and you will be back to square one with your idea. Kickstarter projects often feed on momentum- if users think you will be successful in meeting your goal, they will be more inclined to donate. Be realistic and estimate costs without being overly ambitious on an end sum.
Get Feedback With Quirky
Let’s say you have an idea for a great product but lack the financial backing to start production. What’s the next step? Consider submitting your product idea on Quirky for only 10 dollars. Quirky allows users to post any innovation or invention to be put up to vote by the staff and community, with the most popular set to begin production. While the likelihood that your idea will reach production is probably small, you will be able to gain invaluable feedback if your product meets the site’s criteria. The community is both supportive and honest- constructive criticism will be plentiful, and could point you in the right direction on everything from what your competitors are offering to the feasibility of production and distribution
Things to Consider- How can you sell your product with visuals? If community members can’t understand the product you are proposing, you probably won’t have very much success on the site. While you do not need to have every detail of your idea exactly pinned down, it helps when your diagram or photograph is clear and emphasizes the innovative elements of your product. With thousands of other entries to compete with, a good graphic can go a long way towards both helping your idea get noticed and encouraging feedback that will be vital.
Get Noticed With Zooppa
If your business is already up and running, then consider registration with startup Zooppa. Zooppa connects businesses with creative, independent individuals and holds open competitions that rewards creative individuals with small prizes and businesses with better ads. The competitions on Zooppa can range from individual print ads to overall concepts and strategies. Using the crowd to aid advertising efforts could be both cost effective and better produced than if you relied on a traditional firm for your marketing.
Things to Consider- What are your goals? Think about the audience you are trying to reach and the prominence of your work within the Zooppa community. Because individuals may not be familiar with your company, be sure to include all necessary details while maintaining clarity and focus. Once your competition has started, you can either choose a winner or let the community vote, which could also bring added attention to your company. This flexibility makes Zooppa an extremely attractive option for almost any small business.
If your business is struggling to launch or trying to expand, all three of these sites could help you for a very small cost. For a great comparison on these sites and others like them, check out this inc.mag article for more specifics. The crowd could represent the future of efficiency because of its low overhead; stay one step ahead of your competitors by being amongst the first to take advantage of this amazing (human) resource.
Related: Check out an example of crowdsourcing in the newsroom for a real world, independent example.
About Jack Sharkey
