Ah ha, thanks Ann, for further details... you're in an interesting spot, certainly. Before a big marketing push, and before you've attracted legions of adoring fans, you're right, crowdfunding of any sort doesn't make much sense!
What most people do in this situation is max out personal savings and credit cards. Not very exciting or innovative...
For the amount of $ you're talking about (ie, $25-50k), Peer-to-Peer lending (also known as P2P lending) is an interesting tool that many people have not heard of, and in some situations, it could be helpful, which I'll try to spell out here. Peer-to-peer lending a terrible name because you don't actually get the loan funds from people you know (which is what the word "peer" implies to me); it's usually complete strangers, and increasingly, institutions, that lend you the money through the online platforms.
In the US the two P2P platforms are
Lending Club and
Prosper. These are good options if you have a good credit score; if you don't, you either can't use the platform at all to get a loan, or your interest rates will be a lot higher. If you do have good credit, then you should be able to get a loan at a much better interest rate (ie, lower) than you'd be able to get from a bank for a line of credit or a loan... if you can get a small loan at all from a bank, which is not as easy as people think!
Lending Club and Prosper are really better for PERSONAL loans than business loans for a few reasons (one of which being that at least one of them doesn't offer business loans, and the one that at least did a couple years ago charged more for them as they were riskier to lenders), so you'd likely be applying in your own name rather than as the business entity. The way I usually recommend that people use these platforms is to get a personal loan to help consolidate other debts at a lower rate than what you might currently be paying to your creditors.
Microloan programs are another potential source of debt financing that isn't so much innovative as it is invisible to many entrepreneurs. (In the US, a microloan is anything below $50k.) More importantly than the money though, in my opinion, is that the organizations that provide microloans usually also provide a whole bunch of other important services to small business owners, and often the training that they provide can open the door to many other financing (and other types) opportunities! You can find microenterprise development organizations in your area
here.
If you're fortunate enough to have a local
Slow Money group where you are, make sure you're part of their conversations about how we can better use our savings and retirement and investment dollars to better support our local farmers and food producers, and you'll be well-situated to meet and continue the conversation with values-minded investors.
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There are lots of other more innovative ways to find financing for businesses once you have lots of lots of customers who know who you are and that you're engaging with regularly, though social media or an e-newsletter or even just in person at the farmers market. For instance, Farm Fresh to You has a
Green Loan program that offers lenders interest in the form of the vegetables that they deliver, and apparently the #1 question they get regarding the program is "how much do I have to loan you so that my entire veggie order would be covered by the interest?" Pretty cool! Just keep in mind that there are many laws you need to comply with before you offer any investment opportunity to the permies... you don't want to get yourself in trouble by just thinking you can make something up and start pitching it to your whole newsletter! Definitely talk to a lawyer who is well-versed in securities law.
-Elizabeth