Please help !!!

[Ormsby Guitars]

The crowdfunding platforms are littered with failed luthier projects. And with good reason.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/73 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/19 ... =discovery

Even old mate Eric tried his luck:
http://www.pozible.com/project/11056

There are some cool ones though, like this "project":
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ra ... nav_search
Maybe it isnt luthiery, but its a cool idea for families with young kids to get into music, and share a project together. They did a second round of funding for a new design too:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ra ... nav_search



I loved this one:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... nav_search
and again:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... nav_search


And then there is this, which i believe is the highest revenue raised on crowdfunding:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ry ... s-actually

However, this was the second time they tried to raise funds. The first time they were unsuccessful.

Im a fan of crowdfunding, but some see it as a good way to raise some money, with no thought, effort, or plans in place. Thats a disaster. I think most people can see that for what it is, and those projects ultimately dont seem to be funded.

Heres the Melbourne guys I mentioned in another post. They imported the laser guns, and pain packs without checking the regulations. Everything was seized by customs. Ouch. They also failed to pay taxes from their first round of fund a year prior, so ultimately this round ended up paying debts for the previous year. Result? No one got anything.
http://www.pozible.com/project/180457

[kiwigeo]

Im a fan of crowdfunding, but some see it as a good way to raise some money, with no thought, effort, or plans in place. Thats a disaster. I think most people can see that for what it is, and those projects ultimately dont seem to be funded.

Exactly....generally the crowd can spot projects that are faulted. Of course there are exceptions.....but how many times has a bank manager deemed a business worthy of financing and then watched it crater?

[J.F. Custom]

I'm about to go make a cup of coffee if anybody wishes to fund me?

I'll back you - if you send me a sip as a perk?

Needs to be hot though. Can't stand cold coffee.

Jeremy.

[Ormsby Guitars]

Im a fan of crowdfunding, but some see it as a good way to raise some money, with no thought, effort, or plans in place. Thats a disaster. I think most people can see that for what it is, and those projects ultimately dont seem to be funded.

Exactly....generally the crowd can spot projects that are faulted. Of course there are exceptions.....but how many times has a bank manager deemed a business worthy of financing and then watched it crater?

Considering how many business fail in the first two years, a lot I'd imagine! But, they just take your home, car, etc...

http://empireone.com.au/why-most-startu ... few-years/

From the website above, but i do remember seeing it on the ABS site a while ago also:
From 2007-2011
60% of sole proprietor (no staff) businesses failed;
40% of 1-4 person businesses failed;
35% of 5-19 person businesses failed; and
40% of small businesses were not profitable

Scary!

[Wayde Christie]

I really appreciate your generous input so far Perry - you've given me a lot to think about.

The crowdfunding platforms are littered with failed luthier projects. And with good reason.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/73 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... =discovery
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/19 ... =discovery

Those campaigns look like they've had zero effort put into them and zero marketing, so they were bound to fail. You can't just throw up a few paragraphs of text and expect a surge of interest. Compare those campaigns to this one: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gr ... =home_potd - huge difference.

Sully sent me a link to an interview he did about his successful Kickstarter campaign - it's worth a listen - http://www.thecrowdfundingway.com/006-t ... y-guitars/

Anyway, I'd love to talk more about my ideas but the vibe is bordering on hostile in here so I think I'll keep my plans to myself

There is one idea that I'd like to get everyone's feedback on, but I'll save that for another thread...

[simso]

Anyway, I'd love to talk more about my ideas but the vibe is bordering on hostile in here so I think I'll keep my plans to myself .

I do not think its become hostile at all, there is a difference between being capable of doing something, taking the risks and putting the effort in and being a dreamer and asking for others to pay for a person to stroke there dream

Steve

[simonm]

(…)
Whilst I do not agree with crowd funding for startups in luthiery, it's s great way to build the business if you handle it properly.

…
The kickstarter was the solution: get a number of orders to create decent cashflow and workload, upgrade and purchase materials, stock and machinery to assist, and lastly, make a big announcement that he is making the step up. It worked, exactly as we planned.
(...)

Pretty much sums up my view of crowd funding the crafts & arts area: cash flow and marketing.

[Wayde Christie]

You'll be all pleased to know that after 9 years my wife passed her final exams at university today, so I can now give up on this whole crowd-funding nonsense and pursue my dreams the traditional way - by mooching off her

[kiwigeo]

You'll be all pleased to know that after 9 years my wife passed her final exams at university today, so I can now give up on this whole crowd-funding nonsense and pursue my dreams the traditional way - by mooching off her

Perfect business model.......ya get to sleep with your bank manager

[Nick]

Perfect business model.......ya get to sleep with your bank manager

Isn't that what you are supposed to do anyway? At least that's what my slightly effeminate bank manager told me!

Congrats to your wife Wayde too!

[demonx]

Call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer to see a person get a real effing job and save up to buy their own tools etc, than get handouts from crowd funding.

It also annoys me when kids these days build one or two guitars, then all of a sudden they're calling themselves a luthier and selling runs of guitars. I have respect for the guys who build a couple dozen before going into the selling to public side of things. The ones who don't rush into things. The ones that do the hard yards.

Crowd funding I feel is great for people who might have life changing inventions that could help sick or disabled or advance technology somehow that benefits mankind, not for the lazy little pricks looking for the easy road.

My above comments should probably give off the vibe you won't see me starting a crowd funding scab session anytime soon! All my machinery is paid for by good old fashioned hard work. Just last year along I invested 70k back into the guitar business. I was working 80hr weeks for years, doing full time as a guitar builder and full time at a factory at night. All funds put into the business or our house.

At the moment I've stepped back from doing such crazy hours for health reasons, doctors orders. Long story short, years and years of hard work was killing me, as was the grog which helped me along with the hard hours! So the luthier company I'm plodding along 4-5 days a week, then the night work is reduced drastically as well. I say company, as my guitar business has now merged with another local business we operate and both are owned by a Pty Ltd which my other half and I have 50% shares each as directors. It's all for tax purposes.

So to sum it all up, no handouts for slackers. Respect for the hard workers.

Funny though Perry mentioned a kickstarter that raised a bunch and then screwed up with tax etc. I used to go to high school and be in a band with one of the main guys that was running that IRL thing. He's now relocated to Thailand. Not sure if it was running away from anything!

[Ormsby Guitars]

Funny though Perry mentioned a kickstarter that raised a bunch and then screwed up with tax etc. I used to go to high school and be in a band with one of the main guys that was running that IRL thing. He's now relocated to Thailand. Not sure if it was running away from anything!

More than likely! I met the owners at a business seminar last year. I was always a bit iffy on them. Something didnt seem right.

[demonx]

Funny though Perry mentioned a kickstarter that raised a bunch and then screwed up with tax etc. I used to go to high school and be in a band with one of the main guys that was running that IRL thing. He's now relocated to Thailand. Not sure if it was running away from anything!

More than likely! I met the owners at a business seminar last year. I was always a bit iffy on them. Something didnt seem right.

It was around two years or so ago that he went to Thailand. I know it was around the time that I lost ownership of my own web URL, as it was setup on the servers run by the IT company that he owned. When he dissapeared, so did the website, but I had trouble buying it back as all of a sudden when the ownership period expired, the domain went up as what they called a highly desired name (buggered if I know how they work that out) and instead of being $30 or $50 or whatever they charge, they wanted a several thousand dollar fee for me to buy the name that I already owned, but not technically. So rather than having a .com I went under a new domain provider with a .com.au and held out until the .com became no longer desirable to them financially, when it was finally released about six or twelve months later and I snapped that back up as well.

It is after that experience that I no longer use a pro website company, I do it all myself. My site may not look as professional, but I have 100% control.