THE PRINCIPLE

If you’re short of funds, use other people’s money (OPM)

There is an even more literal version of pre-selling, namely selling a product before it exists. Artist Karen Sperling did this. She’s an expert at using a software program called Painter to transform photos into paintings. She has taught this internationally and has contributed to a number of books. When she decided to write and self-publish her own book on the subject, she asked people to order and pay for it in advance, and to wait six months to get it.

It’s a clever approach because it instantly gave her an idea of how many potential customers there were for the book and of course it meant she could use their money to produce the product.

If you use this approach and you don’t get enough people paying, you can refund the money and nobody has lost anything.

A friend of mine, Chris Jones, used a similar approach to fund the production of his award-winning short film, Gone Fishing. He wanted to produce a film that would show off his talents as a director so he offered people an Associate Producer credit on this film if they donated £50 towards its production. Their names would be featured (in very small print) at the end of the film. He managed to raise more than £15,000 and produced a heart-warming film starring Bill Paterson, who has appeared in hundreds of TV shows and films. It qualified for the long-list for the Oscars. Those of us who put in our money knew we’d never get it back, it was just a way to support an aspiring film-maker and have a bit of fun too.

Raising money this way works best if you have a way of easily contacting potential customers who already know and trust you. If you don’t have your own list, it may be possible to collaborate with someone who does, in exchange for a commission or a barter of services.

So, if you find that your quest to turn your idea into reality is foundering due to a lack of money, consider how you can use other people’s!