Sally Guyer, owner of The Cambridge Raincoat Company, explains why the business should win the innovation in funding category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
As a single parent with very little funds for getting my business off the ground or promoting it, I took the following steps to get going:
1. I continue teaching part-time while running the business from home and still don’t take a salary from it.
2. As I had no budget for website development or marketing, I jumped in with social media. I also started entering business competitions where I had a number of successes which gave me advertising or a new website.
3. Anywhere I can negotiate swapping, collaborating or teaming up with other small businesses, I do. This saves having to spend as well as providing increased publicity.
4. We are about to launch a formal crowdfunding campaign through an organised website but I did my own small-scale crowdfunding informally with friends and family when I first started out, offering a discount on coat prices as a reward. The response was heartwarming and helped me take a step forward.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
