Illinois Governor Rauner Signs New Intrastate Equity Crowdfunding Bill into Law

New crowdfunding legislation means more available capital forIllinois entrepreneurs and small businesses, resulting in more Illinois jobs being created by these entrepreneurs and small businesses

By Robert Hoskins

Chicago, Illinois – Governor Rauner has signed intrastate equity crowdfunding into law.  This new vehicle for raising capital empowers the small business community by allowing business owners and entrepreneurs to raise capital from a large number of people.  In exchange, investors receive a small equity interest in the business.

Illinois Equity Crowdfunding Intrastate Exemption

“Intrastate equity crowdfunding can be a game-changer for the small business community, it will allow business owners and entrepreneurs to invest in, and empower one another.  Many states, including Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, have already passed legislation allowing companies to raise money in this way.  Passing this legislation has ensured Illinois businesses are able to compete on a level playing field with those in neighboring states,” said Elliot Richardson, Small Business Advocacy Council, CEO.

The SBAC and a coalition of chambers and business groups spearheaded a grass-roots effort to bring intrastate equity crowdfunding to Illinois.  Through the power of critical mass, the small business community worked with legislators and moved this important legislation.  “This is a tremendous step forward for Illinois small businesses and entrepreneurs. This will mean more available capital forIllinois entrepreneurs and small businesses, resulting in more Illinois jobs being created by these entrepreneurs and small businesses,” said attorney, Anthony J. Zeoli of Freeman & Peters LLP.

State Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, issued this statement, “As Co-Chair of the Small Business Owners Caucus in Springfield and primary bill sponsor, I’m thrilled Governor Rauner signed our Crowdfunding bill!  I know the business community has been anxious to see this legislation passed.  It has been a sincere pleasure to work with the SBAC on this and other measures over the years.  Illinois has so much to offer small businesses and today marks a milestone in finding new ways for small businesses to raise capital.”

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Crowdfunding PR Raising Money via Wells Fargo Project Work to Build the Very 1st Equity Crowdfunding Co-Working Space, Incubator, Accelerator and Training Facility Center in Austin, Texas

Click on this image to vote YES for our Crowdfunding Co-working Incubator, Accelerator and Crowdfunding Training Facility on Wells Fargo’s Work Project Contest for Small Businesses

Show our crowdfunding campaign some love by clicking here and simply voting “Yes,” and then share this story with your friends on social media. Your one vote will help us WIN!

  By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Front Page PR’s 2015 Mission is to teach local communities how to buy distressed properties such as vacant warehouses and strip malls and invest a little bit of money to turn these properties into crowdfunding co-working spaces where entrepreneurs and startups can congregate and dream up new product/service ideas.

The Wells Fargo Works Project for Small Business. Please Click to Vote YES!

Utilizing co-working spaces, Front Page PR can teach startups via crowdfunding training classes how to use a new finance tool called “Equity Crowdfunding” to raise the sufficient seed capital needed to setup a business, transform their creative ideas into prototypes, pay for the very first manufacturing production run, and then convert these companies from fledgling startups into successful revenue generating machines.

Equity Crowdfunding was legalized in 2012 by the JOBS Act. By October 2015, the SEC should release the final Title III equity crowdfunding rules. Startups will then be able to use General Solicitation market their investment opportunities to over 180 million non-accredited investors throughout the United States. The result? Leading finance experts and venture capitalists agree that the crowdfunding industry will grow quickly into a $300 billion per year industry.

The biggest marketplace challenge is that 99% of the population is unaware of crowdfunding and will need to be trained on how to invest in new startups and how to raise money using equity crowdfunding campaigns. Our crowdfunding classes are complete, but the biggest problem we face is how to pay for an actual crowdfunding training facility, converting it into a co-working space, staffing it with experts, and then marketing the facility to the general public.

We would like to spend the $25,000 Wells Fargo prize to start the process of setting up a Crowdfunding Incubator/Accelerator facility for small businesses and utilizing it over the next two to five years to teach people how to use crowdfunding sites to raise seed investment capital. The business model should fund itself in less than 12 months based on monthly co-working memberships alone, but we need enough money to get things started.

Our Incubator will provide a directory of crowdfunding experts that mentor entrepreneurs/startups on how to use donation-based or rewards-based crowdfunding to raise enough money on sites like GoFundMe.com, Kickstarter.com, or IndieGoGo.com to get a business up and running. Our crowdfunding training classes will show startups the step-by-step process of how to conduct successful crowdfunding campaigns.

Our Accelerator will provide a directory of legal, finance and securities experts that will help businesses take their companies to next level by selling equity shares or debt in their company to investors to raise even more money. The investor training classes will show new, non-accredited investors how to vet deals and ride the coattails of super angels by utilizing investment syndicates.

Once the Incubator/Accelerator is established and producing successful startups, we plan to license the business model so that others can replicate this crowdfunding training business template anywhere in the United States, providing a tremendous boost to the US economy.

Why launch a Crowdfunding Training Center? After serving as the Director of Corporate Communications for several Fortune 50 companies, I was bitten by the entrepreneurship bug and jumped off the corporate ship in 2001.

Since then I have thrived on the joy of building industries one small company at a time and the love for sharing my accrued knowledge gained from a vast array of B2B industries, international sales & distribution channels and working with media organizations to maximize publicity.

My track record includes building a broadband wireless industry in 2001 with the Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine, an Arizona solar industry in 2009 with the Arizona Solar Power Society and I have been working for the past three years on building a crowdfunding industry with Crowdfunding PR to score a hat trick in 2015 when the SEC approves the title III equity crowdfunding rules.

Please support our fundraising campaign to build the 1st Crowdfunding Co-Working Space, Incubator, Accelerator and Training Center in Austin, Texas. Click here and vote yes!

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Front Page PR Seeks Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses and Franchises that Want to Take Advantage of the New Texas Crowdfunding Rules to Market Equity Investment Opportunities

Top 50 cities in Texas are home to 13.3 million residents that will soon be able to invest up to $5,000 per year in private equity investment opportunities

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Front Page PR (www.crowdfundingPRcampaigns.com), one of America’s leading crowdfunding PR and marketing firms, announced that the firm is now seeking new startups and entrepreneurs that want to take advantage of the new Intrastate Texas Crowdfunding Exemption rules that allows companies to raise up to $1 million from non-accredited investors.

Front Page PR is one of the leading Crowdfunding PR firms in America

On December 1, 2014, for the first time in 80 years, Texas-based startups and entrepreneurs will be able to sell private equity shares to all residents living Texas. In addition, all parties will be able to use mass marketing to advertise and publicize their equity investment opportunities using media outlets that focus on Texas Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), which are home to more than 26 million potential customers.

Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)	Population
Houston – The Woodlands – Sugar Land	6,484,279
Dallas – Plano – Richardson – Irving	4,627,393
Fort Worth – Arlington – HEB	2,358,186
San Antonio – New Braunfels	2,334,363
Austin-Round Rock	1,938,858
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission	862,768
El Paso	862,638
Killeen-Temple	445,356
Corpus Christi	443,351
Brownsville-Harlingen	439,437
Beaumont-Port Arthur	413,982
Lubbock	304,682
Laredo	275,686
Amarillo	265,821
Waco	260,728
College Station-Bryan	246,910
Longview	226,407
Tyler	222,781
Abilene	170,164
Wichita Falls	152,426
Midland	150,721
Odessa	145,960
Sherman-Denison	125,901
San Angelo	113,969
Victoria	96,883
Texarkana	93,457
Total:	24,063,107

Approximately 20 million of these customers are over the age of 18 and will be able to invest up to $5,000 per year in private equity placements. Once the state educates its residents and new investors become Internet savvy investors, Texas will represent a $100 billion per year pool of venture capital that small businesses and entrepreneurs can use to raise start up funding.

This will prove to be a boon for the large majority of ideas and business plans that are currently being rejected or ignored by the states 70+ business accelerators and incubators.

Any business that has received the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) rubber stamp to be pre-approved for SBA loans should strongly consider opening a business in Texas. Franchisors and franchises are the perfect business model to help franchisees raise money using the new Texas crowdfunding rules. Unlike many startups that will have an unproven track record, franchises with 5 or more profitable locations should be able to provide investors with a better than average chance of success.

Rural areas are a prime target for economic development in Texas where the demand is present for new restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, trampoline parks, entertainment venues, but until now have not had access to traditional venture capital due to their location.

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Contact:
Robert Hoskins
Front Page PR
(512) 627-6622
rhoskins@frontpagepr.com

 

JobsinCrowdfunding.com Launches the Industry’s First Job Recruitment Website for Crowdfunding Professionals in Engineering, Finance, Marketing and #Sales Careers

The advanced career placement platform will connect job seekers with crowdfunding intermediary employers and service providers that are expected to create 170,000 jobs over the next five years

By Robert Hoskins

The booming crowdfunding industry was predicted to blossom to an impressive $5.1 billion industry in 2013 and is expected grow to over $93 billion by 2025.  In the past 12 months more than 600 startups have launched new businesses and are now seeking very specialized crowdfunding careers that have never existed before.  To adapt to this highly personalized demand, JobsinCrowdfunding.com has introduced its next generation recruitment platform, which delivers superior job posting capability, enables employers to access the latest technology for candidate matching and provides the one central specialist site for all Industry job seekers and employers alike.

Jobs in Crowdfunding Launches the Industry’s First Job Recruitment Website for Crowdfunding Professionals for Engineering, Finance, Marketing and Sales Careers

“The Crowdfunding industry needs a hiring solution that is simple, industry specific and most importantly cost-effective,” said Lucia Amador, Limitless People’s CEO.  “Our platform offers a wide range of monthly access packages that can be easily budgeted and will allow small companies to hire as many employees as they need for just one set price, which provides an incredible ROI.”

“Our next generation Jobs in Crowdfunding platform provides employers with advanced ‘anytime’ direct access to industry specific candidates including a customized hiring module that can isolate selected candidates from the open market during the initial interview process to maximize efficiency,” Amador added.

The career placement site offers employers five cost-effective packages, including: Starter, Basic, Standard, Premium and Executive Search.  These packages offer employers an advanced, but affordable hiring solution that addresses their unique recruiting needs quickly and easily.

For crowdfunding startups that have limited resources and budget, Limitless People’s management team offers an Executive Search Package, which allows employers to leverage the firm’s extensive recruitment experience.  Seasoned HR professionals can be utilized to provide customer-tailored job searches allowing crowdfunding companies to stay focused on their core business of raising money for campaign managers.

For crowdfunding intermediaries, Limitless People offers cost effective access packages so that all recruitment activities can be integrated into one place effectively streamlining their candidate search activities rather than posting jobs and collecting candidates from multiple sources to save considerable time and money, while achieving higher results.

For crowdfunding job seekers, the free JobinCrowdfunding.com site is already live and accepting resumes to help candidates find new jobs and careers in the crowdfunding industry.

Limitless People is a worldwide software application development company that specializes in building career placement platforms for the crowdfunding, sports, entertainment, software, recruitment and telecommunications industries. For more information on Limitless People professional services, please visit the company’s website at www.limitlesspeople.com.

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ByOwner.com Crowdfunding Advertising Portal Fights Fraud and Crime With New Social Graphing Tool from Facebook

The nationwide classified advertising site uses  Social Graphing technology from social media networks such as Facebook.com to protect free Crowdfunding campaign advertisements

By Robert Hoskins

Here is a good example of how Crowdfunding platforms should be using social graphing technology from social networks like Facebook.com to let investors/donors research their campaign managers to see who they are and what type of friends, photos and interests they have listed on their Facebook profiles.

ByOwner.com eCommerce portal fights crime with new social graphing tool to build safer classified ads to promote crowdfunding campaigns

Most people who launch Crowdfunding campaigns do not consider advertising as a way to increase their reach, but using free classified advertising platforms like ByOwner.com, crowdfunding campaign managers can place ads in a wide variety of places to increase their crowdfunding profile’s traffic during the bottom of the “U” or lull that many campaigns experience during the middle of their campaign.

Crowdfunding platforms should note how ByOwner.com is combating the growing crime wave associated with placing online classified advertisements, by deploying a new four-step verification process that utilizes a sophisticated social graphing tool that offers buyers/sellers a more transparent process to research and complete safer classified advertising sales transactions. The same technology should be used on every Crowdfunding intermediary to let donors/investors cross tab their personal networks on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Linkedin and Twitter to see what contacts their social networks have in common.

ByOwner.com uses the social graph from Facebook’s API to showcase relationships between users. The social graph is a digital map of both party’s friends and how they relate to one another. It integrates information from each user’s profiles giving buyers a sense of confidence with whom they are purchasing from, and sellers will have transparency of who is their buyer.

When buyers and sellers have overlapping networks, ByOwner.com automatically displays people that appear in both people’s networks. Users can then verify a person’s identity or at a minimum get a sense of the person they are dealing with by reviewing their friends, photos, and other interests that are highlighted on their Facebook pages.

“As we’ve been building our classified advertisement posting portal, we set Google alerts to monitor news stories posted about Backpage.com, Craiglist.com and others,” said Greg Sullivan, ByOwner.com’s CEO. “The number of crime related stories we discovered was astounding from people who were robbed at gun point, raped or murdered because of a classified ad they listed or responded too.”

“If these customers had used ByOwner.com’s social graphing technology to review the each other’s profiles before their meeting, they could have avoided questionable individuals,” Sullivan continued. “Our new social graph verification system makes it easier to track and eliminate people who are posting ads for fake DNA tests, positive pregnancy tests or participating in human trafficking, prostitution, scams and other types of fraudulent or illegal activities.”

As the Christmas and holiday seasons approach, ByOwner.com offers a safe place to post classified ads to buy, sell and shop for great deals on affordable iPhones, iPads, Xboxs, Play Station 4s, cars/trucks for sale, homes for sale, rooms for rent, vacation rentals and post free job listings.

ByOwner.com is a classified advertisement posting community based in Florida that offers homes for sale, vacation rentals, apartments for rent, autos, jobs, and more than 91 different categories of products and services. Customers can place their advertisement for free or place premium advertisements on the ecommerce portal to attract buyers worldwide and is 100% free to use. Third-party classified advertising sites are welcome to upload their inventory for free to increase their customer’s exposure. Visit www.byowner.com for more information.

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Body Boxing Bootcamp Launches Indiegogo Fitness Crowdfunding Campaign to Finance their State-of-the-Art Boot Camp Workout Center for Clients and Personal Trainers in Los Angeles

BBB is offering boxing boot camp personal trainer perks, fitness boot camp gift cards and workout center pre-orders to donors living in Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Park La Brea, West Beverly, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles and Wilshire

By Robert Hoskins

Body Boxing Bootcamp launched a community internet-based fundraising campaign on indiegogo’s crowdfunding platform to help raise money to open a new fitness boot camp workout center located in Los Angeles just west of Hollywood, California.

Body Boxing Bootcamp Launches Indiegogo Fitness Crowdfunding Campaign to Finance their
State-of-the-Art Boot Camp Workout Center for Clients and Personal Trainers in Los Angeles

Crowdfunding is a new way for local community members to pool their money together in order to help local entrepreneurs launch businesses customers would like to see introduced into their cities and towns based on their own personal desire to buy or use the product or service.

For example, there are plenty of traditional gyms in the Hollywood area, but none of them feature the mixture of boxing workout techniques combined with dancing, Thai kickboxing, resistance training (rubber bands and light weight lifting), plyometrics (jumping and quick movement drills), calisthenics (using one’s own body weight), obstacle courses, circuit training, and parachute running.

Customers that would like see the new workout facility open up can log on to and donate money by pre-ordering boot camp training workouts, buying fitness gift cards for friends or purchasing one or signing up to become a personal trainer at:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/body-boxing-boot-camp-seeks-funding-to-open-a-fitness-center-in-los-angeles/x/1907888

In return for a donation, BBB is offering to train anyone that wants to learn how to become a personal trainer and is offering a white paper, DVD, Smartphone wireless app, business plan template and all the necessary equipment to get into the personal trainer boot camp business.

Body Boxing Bootcamp fitness  workouts target:

1. Young singles seeking active lifestyles;
2. Baby boomers preventing the onset of old age;
3. Overweight kids seeking to gain a better self image and self-defense skills;
4. Celebrities, movie stars, rock stars who prefer private workouts when visiting Hollywood; and
5. Anyone that wants to lose weight and get into an active routine that is fun and burns lots of calories.

“Both private personal training and group workout sessions will be offered, but the majority of the boxing boot camps will be done in groups of ten to twenty people,” said Kevin Barringer, Body Boxing Bootcamp’s CEO and head personal trainer.  “When people workout together, over time they become friends. And most friends are competitive and like to push each other to work harder.  This is the secret sauce that makes our classes fun and keeps our clients coming back for more.”

Body Boxing Bootcamp (BBB) needs $375,000 to lease retail space, renovate it and build a specially formatted workout center that will provide plenty of space for indoor workouts that are similar to the outdoor classes that the company offers on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the nearby Pan Pacific Park.

In addition to its own fitness boxing boot camps, BBB plans to rent out space in the gym to other personal trainers and Meetup boot camp organizers.

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CareerFuel Launches Crowdfunding Education Site For Entrepreneurs

On September 23, 2013, entrepreneurs will have a new way to reach accredited investors with private offerings—advertising.

By Robert Hoskins

Stemming from Title II of The JOBS Act and the recent regulations released by the SEC to support it, this is intended to make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital for their new businesses and create jobs in the process.

According to CareerFuel it will now be easier then ever before to raise capital for new businesses.

There are approximately 8.6 million accredited investors in the U.S. and they fund 3% of startups/small businesses. During 2012, an estimated 260,160 angels collectively invested $22.9 billion in 67,000 companies. An additional $26.5 billion was invested by venture capitalists in 3,698 companies. Advertising to these wealthy individuals has the potential to significantly expand the market of accredited investor small business capital.

Later this year, it is anticipated that the SEC will release the rules for Title III of The JOBS Act, enabling entrepreneurs to offer securities (debt or equity) to unaccredited investors in exchange for investment in their early-stage companies.

This new fundraising tool known as equity crowdfunding comes with a myriad of regulations that will have to be met. While potentially transformative for entrepreneurs, it is one of many ways available to raise money for new businesses. The primary options today include: personal savings, friends and family, donation crowdfunding, angel investment, venture capital and institutional investment.

To educate entrepreneurs about this exciting option—how it works, whether it is a good fit for their business and how to utilize it—CareerFuel has launched a comprehensive crowdfunding site for entrepreneurs. Free for their use and regularly updated, CareerFuel is the go-to place for the crowdfunding education “issuers” will need.

CareerFuel is one of the only sites that offers job seekers and aspiring entrepreneurs the direction, inspiration and job listings needed to find a job or start a business.

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Search for Crowdfunding Jobs on the Crowdfunding Press Center’s New Crowdfunding Career Center Job Board

Search for New Crowdfunding Job Openings/Post Free Crowdfunding Career Help Wanted Advertisements

The Crowdfunding Press Center has now opened a Crowdfunding Career Center Job Board to provide a place for Crowdfunding sites and platforms to begin posting job openings as the Crowdfunding industry grows.

Advisory Board of Crowdfunding Experts

For example, please consider joining the Crowdfunding Press Center’s Advisory Board of Crowdfunding Experts, which is now actively seeking to fill the Crowdfunding positions listed below.  Click here to submit your 30-second business pitch.

1. New Business Development Director
2. Public Relations Director
3. Media Relations Director
4. Investor Relations Director
5. Industry Analyst Relations Director
6. Fundraising Campaign Director
7. Crowdfunding Escrow Director
8. Broker/Dealer Director
9. Crowdfunding Campaign Director
10. Perks/Promotional Items Director
11. SEC Compliance Director
12. Social Media Director
13. SEO Digital Content Director
14. Database Marketing Director
15. Financial Data Mining Director
16. Information Technology Director
17. Legal Counsel Director
18. Human Resources Director

Related Crowdfunding News Articles:

• Crowdfunding Press Center Releases the First Global 100 Crowdfunding Site Index
• Front Page PR Offers Broker-Dealers Turnkey Crowdfunding Marketing Campaigns to Target Reg. D Accredited Investors
• Planning an Effective Crowdfunding PR Campaign
• Sign Up for the Crowdfunding Press Center’s Free Crowdfunding Daily Newsletter
• Hire a Validated Crowdfunding Expert to Help You Plan Your First Crowdfunding Marketing Campaign