Don't know if this is the best place to put this but am interested in peoples thoughts.
Among the many projects ongoing at present is one that has gradually become quite central to the farm development plan. This is the provision of a new facility that acts as farm shop/expanded kitchen and 'dinner at the farm' venue.
Its on a good road with a lot of local passing traffic (and lots of locals wanting us to open up!) and would increase both 'farm gate' and our 'internet' sales potential as well as allowing great pit bbq evenings, courses and other things here to have a suitable HQ.
We have gone ahead and got the relevant planning consents in place and have the site prepared. We are now looking at the most sensible and sustainable way of funding the build without involving any borrowing (a rule we try to obey within the farms development overall). We have secured (through another venture I am involved in) the labour costs of the build (by allowing a sustainable prefab system to be used and then publicised) and also have organised most of the equipment fit out through existing friends in teh trade.
This leaves just the materials and services costs as the missing pieces of the jigsaw. Around £10 - £15k. We have looked at going in with a like minded partner who might want to buy a stake in the venture and also various 'crowdfunding' options.
In the former, we are just not sure who would want to buy into a farm shop/bbq venue which wouldn't actually need much of their input and might feel more like a simple (perhaps slightly dull) investment. On the latter we were wondering what would be a good reward to offer. So many schemes seem to offer so little and we cannot genuinely see anyone wanting to help fund a charcuterie/bbq enterprise that they might only use occasionally. As a result we had wondered about offering full reward in the form of any farm foods we offered (or events we held), at full face value, to be provided as effective repayment of the donations. This felt good because the very fruits of the enterprise being funded would then be given back to those who had funded it - seems simple! but this actually appears to break the rules of some of the 'kickstarter' type schemes.
What do people think?
would it be attractive to small investors on a crowdfunding basis to put in say, £100 and then get £100 (or maybe even £120) of goods like pork, poultry, charcuterie etc back over a set period?