When looking for funding for your company, we often exhaust all are known resources quickly, family, friends, colleges, but there's a new site called Kickstart and it's making funding for your startup business so much easier. Kickstart is a places for ordinary people to finance their ventures by getting the word out and accepting money from anyone who wants to donate. Now you might be thinking that this had been done before, but not like Kickstart, with Kickstart the people submitting donations have a clear idea on what they will be getting in return for their donation. For example, if someone was trying to open up a food truck and they needed $10,000 to start, they could post the project and they stipulate the benefits you get for the amount of your donation, if you donate $10 you might get free lunch one day, if you donate $1000 you may offer to cater an office lunch free of charge. One thing about Kickstart is that it's an all-or-nothing, which means if you do not meet your goal, the donation is not paid out to you, but there are many success stories that surpass their goal. The all-or-nothing helps the site weed out people who aren't serious about their projects, if you're serious about your project you're going to promote it so that you can be sure to meet that goal you set up. Visit Kickstarter for more information.

It's not good to focus on negative aspects, but there are a few really common mistakes new business owners make.

The first mistake we've already discussed, so we won't go into detail, it's not having a plan. There are businesses that have survived and even thrived without so much planning, though those cases are far and few between, also had they made a plan they probably would have thrived quicker than just making decisions on a whim. After you have your plan you should be sure and protect yourself by filing for an LLC or Corporation.

Spending too much money: A big mistake that new business owners make is spending too much money, on decor, furniture, employees, office supplies. Sometimes people think having more is better than not having enough, but when you're on a tight budget, you might not need that extra computer or extra employee. It's always a great idea to start out with things you absolutely need, if you can't handle the business without an extra computer or employee, get another, but it's important to weigh out your supply and demand, there's  no need to produce 1000 products a week when there's only a demand for 500 a week.

Marketing: We've discussed this also a bit, but it's important to have a marketing plan, too many business start and no one knows about them besides their family and friends, who will often ask for hand outs. Whatever your marketing plan is, be sure you have one, an effective one that will get the word out to people that you exist. Since we live in the age of the internet, it's easy to do this at lower costs than in the pasts, you just have to know where to put the word out.

Mis-pricing Goods: Another common business mistake is to mis-price goods, pricing them too low or high, it's important to not undersell yourself, also be sure you have a quality product, if not you risk the chance of losing repeat business. 

These are all common mistakes, and if you've made one already, you should plan to correct the mistake as soon as possible. Good luck!