It as been a big challenge getting funding for a new Business same as it as been getting the established supermarkets accept our products into their shelves.
I appreciate the skepticism that comes with new entrants and start-ups and i ended up with a chicken or egg situation as i go forward with my vision for my business. This has sadly delayed and rolled back my plans given that the supply of fortified Soy,Rice Milk powder and the precooked fortified porridge is quite financially demanding to successfully roll it into the market.
Did i tell you on my first sales and marketing agency that run me to the ground with promises and plans that never worked (lets keep it for another day) but this experience traumatized and bankrupted me that left me afraid of sales and marketing teams-check out on may blog for this experience.
Part of the learning curve ended up in re-looking at my business model and seeking to find ow to further drive my costs down and improve efficiency, i opted to negotiate with my manufacturer and bring in bulk supplies and repackage the products myself into different units to fit different consumers pockets and request as opposed to giving them what we had.
This is how we look today:
The other aspect (will appear in my marketing strategy write-up) was that we needed to have our local consumers connect with our products based on the packaging as what we have shouts foreign, import... To this end we decided to change the packaging materials and redesign the brand and names to be able to standout and compete on its own and not under the company. The flagship brand is "Goodlife" and will have all milk powders and porridges under the same name to build a strong household brand.
With all these difficulties in getting funding for re-branding,getting my own packing machine i opted to go for crowd-funding and see how sharing my cause with a larger audience would help me with the required finances for launch and re-branding and buying packing machines.
My Target is usd 25,000 to be raised by 18th Jan 2015 and i do hope it will be a success and exceed my goal.
Check this out:-
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-fortified-micronutrient-foods-business-expand/x/5714551
Interesting to note was the number of individuals and websites willing to help at a fee ( must confess i paid for 2 cheap one's that looking back must ave been cons looking at the analytics on my campaign).
However i eventually landed with https://www.gofundrocket.com/ @gofundrocket and saw my analytics increase 100% within the first week of their work. I believe in the second week will have the donations coming in, more referrals and visits to lead my campaign to the top page of the +Indiegogo and increase my campaign donations to amazing amounts. The kind of audience that hey have been able to share my campaign with is way above what i could do o my own given that in Kenya Crowd-funding is not a trend thus nobody pays attention to what you send out.
Share my campaign and get us going besides you stand to win good rewards as a token of appreciation
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-fortified-micronutrient-foods-business-expand/x/5714551
Thank You we will keep you updated on the progress
