The government has failed! That is the summation.

I remember when there were a few skirmishes in the last administration, candidate Buhari as he was then, kept saying it was the government's responsibility to provide security (this statement is always right.), but since he came he has failed to provide the same security.

What makes it worse is that he doesn't seem to care that his citizens are dying. In fact, true to character, I do not expect him to say anything on this incident.

He would rather go to the UN and moan about the Rakhine state of Myanmar, and the blockade in Palestine while feigning obliviousness when it comes to the thousands and thousands of people killed by Fulani herdsmen in his own country.

The first project I will consider is the timeshare project.

Now get this - Anyone can create a project like this on fundscheap if he is an active member ( I'll explain this further soon), but before thinking of creating one, first back one or two of such projects.



BENEFITS:

You get to own timeshare on a hotel room for 20 years, meaning for one week yearly, you can either stay in the room or rent it out directly or through an agent.


Let us do some small calculation:

I'll put in bracket the figures for another timeshare project on the same site.
Let us say your room is let out at N10,000 (N20,000) per night.

You earn N10,000 (N20,000) x 7 nights = N70,000 (N140,000) per annum for 20 years.

Total earnings - N1.4 million (N2.8 million), and this is conservative.

The rooms are more likely going to be let out at higher figures, which means your earnings can be more.
I'll talk about how much it will cost you in subsequent posts.


PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PLATFORM DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO PAY ANY MONEY UNLESS THEY ATTAIN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF BACKERS NEEDED.



www.fundscheap.com/project/do-you-have-the-guts

Sarahluv,

After signing up, the next thing you need to do is to navigate the different areas of the fundscheap website.

There are over fifty pages, so you can take two or three per day.

I'll take a few of them and go through with you.

Sarahluv:
Good morning.

Good morning. Sorry I have not answered your question. I have been quite occupied, but I'll ensure that I do that today.

Hope you got it?

Starting the process is not difficult, neither is it expensive. The greatest cost, if you regard it as a cost, is the accepting to change your mindset and building discipline and consistency.

If you are able to change your mindset, you will realize that:

As a worker, your salary is your capital towards definitive success in life. Use it well.







www.fundscheap.com/what-is-your-salary

Crowdfunding has achieved great things for people world-wide. Several businesses which would never have seen the light of day have been made possible by crowdfunding.

I'll give an example - We all listen to music and there are several portals online where we can get music to download, so when someone brings a new portal or device, it meets stiff competition before it can be accepted.

In comes Pono. Pono is a device which seeks to make listeners hear music differently. It allows you hear to music exactly the way the artiste would have wanted you to hear it.

Ordinarily, without crowdfunding, this device would never have gotten funded, but over 18,000 pledged over $6.2 million to support this project on a well established platform.

In Nigeria, the goal of crowdfunding is first to help people change their way of thinking so that they no longer believe that there is some project which is beyond them. A vast majority of Nigerians can live well, employ others, be very productive while doing things legitimately, once they are able to get access to funding.

So the first thing is to achieve a change of mind-set.

In bringing out all these projects which would never have left the design pages if not for the beauty of crowdfunding, this thread hopes to awaken the interest of any Nigerian who wants to create job opportunities for others by bringing his own dreams to life without interfering with his day job.

It also seeks to change the mindset of many - Who says you cannot start building that hotel in the next 12 months, or that your T-shirt design cannot take over the fashion scene in that time?

BELIEVE and achieve!

jonaboy:
How do I get the website address of fundcheap?

Thanks for this question. You left out the "s". It is fundscheap, not fundcheap, and the web address is www.fundscheap.com

So how does crowdfunding help Nigerians achieve this?

I'll be back to do some explanation in a little while.

Here is an image of this wonderful device.

The Oculus rift.

Sarahluv:
I have registered on fundscheap and filled the form to back two timeshare projects. What next?

Great move!

I'll do a step by step explanation of what to do next.

Just give me a few minutes.

Imagine owning this agency managed property which can fetch you hundreds of thousands in total rent and you do not interrupt your day job because of it.



No need to imagine. You can start enjoying this at N5000 monthly timeshare pre-payment.

In the last few years, crowdfunding has helped regular salary earners diversify their earnings.

In Nigeria, fundscheap helps you own a hotel room with a short time via timeshare arrangement.

The least rent you may collect is N1.4m


Entry? Very cheap. Five thousand (N5000) monthly



www.fundscheap.com/project/do-you-have-the-guts

The third successfully funded project which I'll discuss, and crowdfunding in Nigeria should take a cue from is the well known Oculus rift.

So what is special about Oculus rift?

Well firstly, their catch phrase - "Step into the game"

This is a device that makes gaming so real, you actually have sensory perception or touch, sight and hearing everything in the game as if you are right there.

The company Oculus was formed sometime in 2012 and 2 months later, had a crowdfunding campaign for the rift on one of the popular crowdfunding platforms.

They successfully raised $2.5 million and Oculus founders felt they had "arrived".


Imagine their shock in March 2014 when Facebook decided to buy them out at $2 billion


This shows that the common man on the streets can make a huge difference with his $10. Crowdfunding sites in Nigeria must draw inspiration from such to make a difference in the country.

gr8david:
Following

Great to have you on board. I'll drop today's first post in a little while.

Okay, let us consider a project which needs a minimum of 1000 backers. Pre-payment for the project will not commence until there are 1000 backers. Chances are that there will be more than that number.

Messages are sent to everyone to pay up, and when they start to do this, the backers who fail to comply are replaced with new ones from the excess backers above 1000.

The second month payment will not commence until the minimum number of backers pay for the first month. That way, the threshold for adequate orders will be met.

Long and short of it all, you have nothing to fear.

The Ouya game console

Sarahluv:
Okay, so to be clear, if I express interest in a project, I don't have to pay anything until that campaign gets the total number of backers needed.


What if some of those backers refuse to pay?

Not to worry. Even if some fail to make pre-payment, it will not be an issue for those who do.

Another real life story.

The Ouya game console sought to raise $950,000 via crowdfunding in 2012. What happened? Backers poured in, and they raised $8m in 29 days. Within a short while, they could actually compete in a market dominated by Sony and other big game console manufacturers.

This story and the chronicle of what became of Ouya in the west has helped crowdfunding in Nigeria to observe and find the right formula on the fundscheap platform. Using a community supervision approach, fundscheap seeks to avoid a situation where successful promoters of projects become a victim of their own fundraising success.

More...

The Pebbles smart watch

While trying to cope with all the challenges of sudden growth in business and demand for their smart watches, Pebble continued to innovate and in 2015, they were back to the crowdfunding community with some new products they needed funding for.

Pebble time and pebble time steel were introduced to the crowdfunding community, and sure enough, the community rose up again to support these two brands with a whooping $20.3.

Unfortunately, the numbers just did not add up and citing financial issues, the company refunded this tranche of funding.


The question now is, "is it possible to achieve this type of funding in Nigeria?"

I strongly believe that fundscheap is doing great things to change the face of crowdfunding in Nigeria.

One product which raised some huge capital from crowdfunding was the Pebble e-paper watch for iphone and android.

The original founder Eric Migicovsky conceptualized a watch which could display messages from iphone android and blackberry and actually raised a little capital from Y Combinator in 2011. It was barely enough to bring his idea to life.

When he went down the road of crowdfunding in 2013 in order to raise $100,000 to bring his vision to life, he received the shock of his life.

Instead of raising $100,000 his product raised over $10m, which allowed the Pebble watch to go into production in 2013.

Pebble began to sell smart watches in July 2013 and sold out WITHIN FIVE DAYS. By December 2014, they had sold their 1,000,000th smart watch.

None of this would have been possible without crowdfunding.


I'll continue with the Pebble story soon.

What has made crowdfunding so attractive worldwide?

The western experience: In the past, if you wanted to finance a business, you would think of getting support from your family. You could also get loans from banks in a relatively easy process so far your demand is not much.

For those who needed a larger capital outlay, they had to look for venture capitalists or angel investors who would key into their project.

All these worked well for a fair amount of people.

Until crowdfunding came and made it easier for most people.

Lots of businesses today owe their success to capital raised from crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding in Nigeria is still in its infancy, but there is so much potential.

Next, I'll highlight a few companies which have made good success from crowdfunding worldwide.

So, like I said, the campaign says it loud: They want to make 5000 Nigerian workers hotel owners in five years. There is also a provision for those who may be passionate about other businesses. The key substance in there is a quest to get people thinking differently.


For most, if you remain in the realm of thinking you currently find yourself, this is like a tall dream, probably almost impossible, but if you focus your mind on thinking big and doing great things, this is very achievable.


How? Well, the premise or idea of crowdfunding means people will contribute towards your project in exchange for something.

In the case of fundscheap, thousands of people will pay for a timeshare facility in your hotel, even when the concept is still in your head.

This will be a huge launchpad for crowdfunding in Nigeria.


In my next post, I will talk about how innovators worldwide have come to embrace crowdfunding.

If you think you can, you are right. If you think you can't, you are also correct.

Most recruiters would ask prospective employees where they see themselves in 5 years. It is a very common question, and it is important because you most likely laid the foundation for whatever you own today, five years ago.


As a Nigerian worker, you are one of the lucky few who draw a regular salary every month, and more often than not, you feel it is not enough to meet your monthly needs.

If your salary is currently insufficient, imagine what happens if you lose that job tomorrow and nothing is forthcoming. God forbid!
For those who can live comfortably on their salaries and embark on projects, a vast majority will still be struggling to build a three bedroom house in the next five years.


This brings me to the purpose of creating this thread. Do you have the guts to change your mindset from struggling to build a three bedroom house to owning a hotel or any other business you are passionate about in that timeframe?

Can you take the bold step and enjoy benefits offered by the changing face of crowdfunding in Nigeria, by getting thousands to book your hotel even while the concept is still in your mind.

While it may not be possible with other sites, you can achieve this goal with fundscheap



Crowdfunding has raised huge businesses all over the world, including Occulus rift which Facebook paid $2billion for. The previous owner is now among the top 5% richest people in the world. Yes, from financial obscurity, he got to that position because of crowdfunding.


The whole world has consistently harped on the potentials for crowdfunding in Nigeria. A lot of Nigerians have to take advantage.

I'll use this thread to explore the "do you have the guts" campaign of fundscheap and how it wants to raise 5000 hotel owners (or any business you have a passion for) in five years.


To be continued...

http://www.fundscheap.com/project/do-you-have-the-guts/

So what is so special about this project and the amount it raised?

The promoter just wanted to make a plate of potato salad. He even admitted he had never made salad before, yet people rallied around him to raise resources to do something far beyond that.

To put it in perspective, resources can be mobilized towards a grand goal without waiting for funding from a central source like the government.

Sarahluv:
Is it a true story?

Sorry, it was actually a potato salad. Here is the link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zackdangerbrown/potato-salad

Notice that he only needed $10, but almost 7000 people gave him over $55,000

The Fundscheap platform is a way for Nigerians to get something similar.

I'll get you the link in a minute.

It is a great vision.

If his government can achieve the two mega-projects, he would have succeeded in enriching the state for the future and in 30 years time, people will still be applauding his vision.

I hope he achieves this.