KickstarterForum.org

[Yasmin C]

Hello

I am Yasmin. I am the sole founder of Lovedesh™, a British design brand for 'Third World'. http://www.lovedesh.com/

See below, my Kickstarter global fashion project to smash stigma and shake up how we all see Third World (49 poorest nations):
http://kck.st/13UUCBj

Plus watch this film I made (yum):
My one dish to smash stigma - Lovedesh Artisan Slow Wood Fired Curry™
http://bit.ly/16douZl

I did all the above alone.

My worries
I will struggle, I know. The chances of me failing are high. Why? I am doing it all alone. Have nobody supporting me. And I have opted for 2 months (to allow people in 3rd world to hear about this). I am also asking for £100,000 and in my 1st week, only got £300 or so. Plus I am dealing with Bangladesh officials - you would imagine i would get support from them - not really as this concept is too alien for them. But my passion, sincerity and stamina (I work non stop, often 20 hours a day) is all I have - which I will use. I have managed to grab myself one British businessman backer. I will be posting updates at my blog http://thenrbdiary.blogspot.co.uk/)

I am here as I need support, dutch courage and want to thanks Salvatore as this forum will be my go to - in times of highs and lows. It took me ages to tell Kickstarter I was not a charity. They rejected me. I fought until I got allowed in as I was disappointed that people think third world, fashion and crowdfunding are mutually exclusive. They are not!

So I am here to support us all. I have learnt the hard way, stumbling along, alone. I have links I have scouted myself *for some reason, I am good at that), which are really cool. And in return, support me, help me with my queries and I will be doing the same.


All the other stuff you might want to click about me, out in the public domain, are below.
Press release
http://bit.ly/16dKXYX

Lovedesh™
http://www.lovedesh.com/

Design Range
http://www.lovedesh.com/#/lovedesh-desi ... 4578339477

Twitter
https://twitter.com/LovedeshScout

[inflexionUSA]

Hi Yasmin,

I admire your ambition and drive and believe in your cause. I've visited your sites and see that you have put a lot of high quality work into this and have extraordinary passion.

I think you should visit good.is. Your project and cause seems to me to be a "good" fit. Also, if you follow this link below you will see how good.is was in fact more influential for this particular KS project than sites like mashable.com. While I do not know that this would always be the case, I believe in certain instances, like yours, it could be.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... mails-etc/

There is a site/organization I saw recently whose focus seemed similar to yours. I have to do some research to find it. There may be synergy for you.

If you place your contact information into your signature (do this in your KSF profile) all present and future posts will have the necessary info to contact you conveniently located at the bottom of your post.

Good luck,

James

[lmatute]

Yasmin,

Love the project and it is clear all the passion and work you had put into it, I think your work speak for itself all you need to do it to put it in front of the right people. A Pre-launch would had been great, a couple of months of pushing Social Media and Bloggers just to spread the word and have everyone ready to "kickstart" the project.

While I think the goal is on the high side, it is not to far out there. Most successfully projects usually fund about 30% from their close network, meaning you need to get about 30ish % from close friends, family and contacts. in your case reaching that 30K mark would hard from that close network.

On any case, Your project is live and here is what I would do to give the best shot possible.

Push social media hard, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and specially youtube, create at lease 1 Video a week (2 would be fantastic), and push it on your own channel (create a channel for "Lovedesh").

Sign up for a service like crowdbooster.com (they got 30day free trial, if you don't like it, you can jus canceled it). They can help you analyzed your social media outreach and scheduale posting on the times that your follower are more active and most likely to share.

Make sure to have Press Releases on each stage of the project to increase your ranking on search engines.

And as James said, reach out to bloggers and philanthropist writers so they can get on board with your cause.

[Yasmin C]

Thanks Imatute & James.

I am very grateful for your time and was so pleased - as I feel support reaching out across the pond to say - hey fellow creator, we can give some feedback.

On some of the points. Yes, Imatute - you are right it appears high but in reality, it is not so.

I carefully worked out how much I need to do what I do. The amount of time it takes to scout out food, travel and design secrets in a way that is sustainable, is high. 3rd world countries are very very expensive - from car to hotels. You spent days in traffic and in UK what takes maybe a day - can take 3 weeks. Sigh.

Also I have to get expert advice from professionals (lawyers etc) to take this design range global. Had I just made textiles by making my own 'inspired' prints, all in London then there is no need. But I am choosing to get out there plus have a few more hands to help me. But even to have a few people on minimum wage salary and cover all the gifts, eats into the funding pot. Plus everything is handcrafted so materials are very expensive - again I could have made my life easier by just mass manufacturing abroad - but Lovedesh™ is about exquisite artisanship.

Also James - Good.is already tweeted about me as I set it up a few days ago. It is unknown in UK - so I quickly did a post hoping to edit it, as it was not perfect first time round Now I see it does not allow you to edit. Oh dear. But at least, I must be on the right track, slowly stumbling across advice. I think I have this site and Salvador to thank for it.

But I have a few tricks up my sleeve - and hoping to get creative with the fund raising process. I need mass media (most of my family and friends will not donate) - it is so alien to everyone. I don't come from a entrepreneurial background and I now realise that whatever happens, I need more pre-support from bloggers - something I only learnt now. Lucky that I chose 60 days as I will be able to ramp up the campaign when it gets to 30 days.

My biggest problem is converting likes into pledges.

Anyway just wanted to share that. I feel pleased that you think it is high quality enough. All the photos are mine or taken by student graduates, with a good camera and my art direction. So never underestimate your city's universities as a efficient means of hiring talent - even if it is raw.

Watch this space. And let's see if Good.is will feature my post - as have noticed twitter gets you followers but rarely pledges.

Also if you need any support from me, let me know? And thanks for the tip James re my signature contact details - I just edited it now. I only joined this forum today. So have fixed it.

Regards

Yasmin C.

[inflexionUSA]

Hi Yasmin and thank you for your reply,

While I can't speak for Imatute, I believe what his point is - not that your goal is too high or unjustified, but rather it's a big number (goal) to attain.

I think you should continue to work good.is. I am still looking for the website I mentioned earlier, I believe it is I and you or I + you. I will find it and send it to you. Another thing you might try is the BBC and other news agencies. In light of the recent building collapse tragedy in Bangladesh, I would think your cause would be very newsworthy.

Do not take family and friends not donating too personally. Having spoken with many others, reading many posts and having experienced the same myself, I have come to the conclusion I need more enemies. I believe they would be easier to get to pledge.

Anyway, your cause is great. Continue to work it and learn. As they say "knowledge is power", you have and will continue to learn a lot in this process.

Until next time,

James

[lmatute]

While I can't speak for Imatute, I believe what his point is - not that your goal is too high or unjustified, but rather it's a big number (goal) to attain.

Yasmin, James is 100% correct, I by any mean tried to imply that your goal was not justify or more than you need, I meant just as James say "it is a large number" and no an easy thing to reach. I was born on a 3er world country, I know exactly what you are talking about.

[Yasmin C]

Thanks - I see. And totally see your point. It is a high number, full stop. Agreed. So explains that it will be even harder anyway even if I have done a very detailed info pack.

Good news is I already have one British businessman backing me. And thank you both - you are the the two have replied. And I appreciate all the help and time given. Thanks Jamaes for looking out for me. I am already on Good.is - so let me see - and also applied to get covered.

I am also contacting Lean In.

Cheers

Yasmin