Power (and shares) to the people! Why Lick are using crowdfunding

Lick is the UK’s favourite independent frozen yogurt brand, and after one year of strong sales in over 500 Sainsbury’s stores, we’ve just launched in Waitrose. We have won multiple awards for our frozen yogurt and marketing, and are regularly written about in national tabloid and lifestyle publications.

But we’re going through a bit of a weird time at the moment. Our financial ‘snapshot’, business plan and camera-shy faces are all online for anyone to see, because we’re currently in the middle of a crowdfunding campaign. It’s exciting and daunting at the same time, but it should definitely be worth it. 

For as little as £10, anyone over 18 can buy shares in businesses that choose to crowdfund, with the hope of getting a big return in several years’ time. We’re using Crowdcube.com – the UK’s most popular crowdfunding website who have grown significantly over the past months due to hundreds of adverts on London underground’s exorbitant wall-space. Crowdfunding is exploding in popularity, with lots of recognised brands using it to raise funds in order to get to the next level; conquer Europe, launch new products, massively increase marketing budgets etc. Camden Brewery, for example, have just raised 2 million pounds on Crowdcube, and are now ‘overfunding’ at 136% of their original target. 

Because crowdfunding opens up the opportunity to invest to anyone, businesses can now invite their following (Facebook likers, Twitter followers, mailing list etc) to spend some spare change on shares and ‘join them for the journey’. They no longer have to rely on your typical investor type any more. One group Facebook message and a call to some relatives and you’re already partially funded. Typically, strong brands do well using this as a method of fund raising. A significant number of investors are in it for the kick – to be a part of something cool and exciting, and to be able to tell their friends how well a company they have shares in is doing. I’ve been behind a guy at a bar who ordered a specialist bottled beer to then tell his friends “I own some of this company… best lager you’ll ever drink”.

This is a strength of crowdfunding – each shareholder becomes a brand ambassador, whether they realise it or not! 

Launching this campaign has been a learning curve for a young brand like Lick. We pride ourselves on having built a community of followers who like our fun, interesting and often arts focussed content (we have an artist residency space and run a record label from our ‘Lick Warehouse’ in Brighton), and so it was hard to imagine asking them to look at an equity based crowdfunding campaign… and even more worrying to be directing them to our ‘business plan’ and ‘exit strategy’. We called our friend Dan Germain who built the Innocent Drinks brand, and asked his advice on how to pitch it to Lick followers. His advice was simple - be completely honest and true and don’t worry about any negative comments.

This is always our natural approach anyway, and as of yet we’ve only received words of encouragement from our 30k Facebook followers, 8k Twitter followers, and extensive mailing list. But the reason for this is obvious, and it highlights another massive perk of crowdfunding. We’re not selling equity to some huge multi million pound corporation – we’re selling it to the guys who send us Lick selfies and wear Lick jumpers to the gym. It’s PEOPLE POWER working for the small businesses who need to keep that edge on competitors with huge financial muscle. It only adds value to our story, and is something to show off about too!

We’re not at the end yet, but we’re 40% funded from 154 investors with a month to go – so are well on course. The weeks of build-up are nerve wracking, but once it’s done and you’re off it’s really quite enjoyable. It’s like jumping into the sea – a big, delicious, fat-free, all natural yogurty sea. 

Click here to watch our video, and here to go to our Crowdcube page. Every investor will receive a Lick tote bag made from organic cotton, and will be invited to our Warehouse for a celebration party at the end. That’s gotta be worth a tenner, no?

Thanks for reading. 

Lick X

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