Reflective Blog: Entrepreneurial Project on Crowdfunding Campaign

This report is a reflective blog detailing a student's experience working on a crowdfunding project for an entrepreneurial venture, 'Made in Marylebone,' which supports homeless women. The student's team aimed to raise funds through a crowdfunding page, employing marketing strategies and focusing on weekly targets. The report highlights the importance of building trust with potential donors by providing authentic data and addressing concerns about fund misuse. The student reflects on the challenges of gaining trust, the effectiveness of using technology for fundraising, and personal lessons learned regarding team dynamics and areas for improvement. The project's success in raising funds, and the insights gained from the experience, are discussed, emphasizing the value of transparency and proactive communication in securing donations and achieving the venture's goals.

ENTREPRENEURIAL

REFLECTIVE BLOG
Entrepreneurs are known for taking risks in order to earn profit but at the same time,
some of them, are trying to do something for society by using different ways (Bennett-Levy and
Lee, 2014). Recently, I worked on a project where an entrepreneurial venture, named Made in
Marylebone, gave money and other essential facilities to homeless women. They are doing this
work from a short period of time. This organisation is known for making and selling different
kind of food items and they used the raised amount in support those women who do not have
their own home (Canagarajah, 2013). My team had 5 members and our main task is to raise more
money for this entrepreneurial venture by creating a crowdfunding page. My team is full of
young energy and we were not ready to use old method of raising money. The idea of using
internet and crowdfunding was given by our team leader because he had worked on similar kind
of project earlier and raised decent amount of money.
As a team, we decided that we will try to focus on attaining weekly targets in order to
raise main objective i.e. 9999 pounds. ''One step at a time'' was the prime strategic thinking
which was in our mind. I was responsible for marketing and promotion of crowdfunding page.
Out of many thinks, the most important lesson which I learnt from this job is that every thinking
of every person differ and they would never donate a single amount until they get assurance that
their money is used in proper way. Assuring them that ''Made in Marylebone'' will use donation
for homeless women was a tuff task because most of the donators had never listen about this
organisation. Raising money for new business enterprises is always challenging (Nesbit, 2012).
Gaining trust of interest people is not easy but if correct strategy is used at right time then this
work can be done in effective way. I provided authenticated data, photos and other information
about money and other assistance which ''Made in Marylebone'' had provided to homeless
women in past.
When donators checked these resources then they did not hesitate in donating money and
asking other to help. One can say that if a work is done with conviction than gaining desired
result is not difficult. The issue if convincing people to use internet and donate money started
resolving gradually money of donators got increased. Trust is most important part of any
relation. When faith of supporters enhanced then we saw a sharp increment in the amount of
donation. Now, the biggest question is that “why helpers do not what to help homeless women”.
Crowdfunding is a clean process and chances of fraud or cheating is very low if an organisation
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is using it for raising money. But still people were asking questions from me about how can I
assure them that money will not be misused. Increment in the events of fraud by non-gaining
organisations can be considered as the main reason behind lack of trust. I knew people will ask
this question so I was ready for it. Releasing authenticate data was the best solution of this
problem.
At the time of chatting with one of interested donator, I found that this person was
cheated by a NGO. He was ready to donate a big sum but he was hesitating. I adopted a different
approach of gaining his trust. I asked him to donate small amount of sum. When this amount
reached to ''Made in Marylebone'' and they started using it for set purpose then donator become
happy and he got ready to donate more amount. Few members of my team were not agree for
being proactive in order to earn faith of supporters but I knew that if we will do something out of
the box than it will get attention of people and resolve problems relating to promotion & less
amount of donation. From my personal experience, I can confidentially say two things. First,
people are ready to help others and second, using latest technology for raising funds can assist in
earning huge amount of money (Tangney and Tracy, 2012).
Most of the people, with whom I communicated, told me that they are interested in
making contribution for helping women but they have doubt about our intentions. At this point,
technology support us. Me and one of my teammate gather all the records of past donations
which is done by ''Made in Marylebone''. We uploaded its link on our crowdfunding platform so
people can get basic knowledge how money is used and how many women have been assisted by
this organisation. The records contain complete details about every single money which this
enterprise has ever received from a donator and how this amount was used (Tatli, 2012). A
significant amount of proportion was send of building homes for needy women. Earlier ''Made in
Marylebone'' was only interested in paying rents of these homeless females but then they make a
major changed in their strategy and started making homes for homeless women.
Their are many things I learnt at the time of working on this project and I will keep them
in my brain when I will get a chance to become a part of another program. My tuning with my
teammates was not up to mark so next time I will focus on making good connection with them.
Their are few other areas where I need improvement like take interest in those activities which
are out of my comfort zone. My knowledge about marketing and research-ability is fine. In
present project my job was to promote our crowdfunding platform and convince people to donate
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more money. I was already good in both areas. Next time, I would prefer to work different
position or take another opportunities like manage money. Although we decided to focus on
every week but few times we missed our weekly targets because some of my teammates fail to
concentrate on their work. I would try to avoid various mistakes which I have committed while
working on this project.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bennett-Levy, J. and Lee, N.K., 2014. Self-practice and self-reflection in cognitive behaviour
therapy training: what factors influence trainees’ engagement and experience of
benefit?. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. 42(1). pp.48-64.
Canagarajah, A.S., 2013. Critical academic writing and multilingual students. University of
Michigan Press.
Nesbit, P.L., 2012. The role of self-reflection, emotional management of feedback, and self-
regulation processes in self-directed leadership development. Human Resource
Development Review. 11(2). pp.203-226.
Tangney, J.P.E. and Tracy, J.L., 2012. Self-conscious emotions.
Tatli, A., 2012. On the power and poverty of critical (self) reflection in critical management
studies: a comment on Ford, Harding and Learmonth. British Journal of
Management. 23(1). pp.22-30.
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