Crowdfunding - Personal Support for Your Start-Up

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Now start-ups can get funded by people who just like your idea and can put up a few bucks, rather than by equity funding, IPO's and other venture capital groups.

A New Way

Traditional funding for start-up companies relies on proven concepts and the potential for big profits. It call for much paperwork - budgeting, projections, presentations - and just the right contacts. It calls for big money, too.

Crowdfunding means that you can raise money online from those who just like your idea and want to support it in a small way, a few dollars up front. Now you can reel out a great idea online, maybe one you have been thinking of a long time, and have at least the beginnings of a workable project  In a sense, your marketing has been done before the product is delivered. This is very different from the traditional marketing and public relation approach

Maybe the biggest difference is that you build a community around your project who will offer their advice and experience, and cheer you on your way. They will give you feedback as your project develops and help things move along. They don't expect a return on investment, just being part of something they believe in.

Kickstarter is one site for this grassroots venture capital. Amazingly, Yancey Strickler, its co-founder, has directed over $435 million into about 37,000 projects. You can see some fascinating start-up inventions in Popular Science (May, 2013).

You can imagine that much innovation will get under way that has bogged down from a lack of support, isolation, and needed feedback. And imagine the stimulus that comes from those who believe in you and are cheering you on!

Viva crowdfunding!

About Dr. Raynard
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.

The Bright Side - A Note from the Future

by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Imagine you are in the future. The economy has tanked, and things are much worse now.  Unemployment is 26%; 17% of mortgages have foreclosed; inflation is rampant; borrowing is very costly; the bond market has crashed; our currency devalued.  We can no longer borrow to pay down our national debt.  2 Million are homeless.

But, we are learning new ways to prosper and be fulfilled.

Now that families have to crowd into 2 or 3 rooms, we have learned to eat together, discuss our affairs, and help each other.  With the electricity on 6 hours a day, we no longer depend upon electronic devices or spend much time on TV and the media.  We work in our garden, share cooking and cleaning, and do all the repairs ourselves.  With gas at $11 a gallon, we’ve learned to car pool with the neighbors and coworkers and share lunch treats.  We’re discovering local sports, too, like trails, biking, local teams, and pickup games of all sorts. Now that schools have little money, we are no longer under the gun with national testing, and parents have time to help their children learn, plus all the time for sports, arts, music, trips and classroom talks.  Our children see more of themselves in school since we insisted they learn useful things about life and themselves; they like school now. 

In downsizing, we have had to sell off or donate so much excess stuff that we see what is essential and most meaningful and spend more time in that.  In fact, getting by with a lot less work hours has meant a lot to ourselves and each other.  Our community has come together, too, as we not share our skills and tools around cooking, gardening, repairing, per care, heating methods – in fact, about everything. We are learning gratitude.

 

I guess this is more the way it used to be.  More sense of community, opportunity, fairness with each other, good schools, a great family life. We could use a teach-in like this every 80 years or so.

Dr. Schwartz, (The Paradox of Choice, 2004) documents how an overload of choice leads to anxiety, loneliness, stress and dissatisfaction - even depression. The polls show that the feelings that choices do matter has dropped over the years. Why?

He documents how the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment, and the more choices, the more stress and pressure. And once you reach an adequate subsistence income, further wealth shows no increase in measurable happiness. In short, an abundance of choice takes precious time, regret of lost opportunity, more uncertainty, more procrastination, more demanding choices, more risk of being let down, more responsibility, restless greed - more agony!

Paradoxically, the choices that contribute most to happiness bind and commit us passionately to loved ones, friends, work and the spiritual life - and gratitude.

About Dr. Raynard

Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, I have spent the last 35 years fulfilling my life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.