Fundraising is not "asking for money" 💵

This week I’ve been listening to a four-part series about the Medici on one of my favorite podcasts, The Rest is History. Anyone with a mild interest in art history is surely familiar with the Medici family from Renaissance Florence who commissioned some of the most significant artworks in western history like Donatello’s David (the scrawny one, not Michelangelo’s ripped version) and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. 

Not surprisingly, as the Medici banking business passed from grandpa Cosimo to son Piero and then to his son Lorenzo, the business acumen and attention to detail started to wane as the gout and baller-lifestyles grew. So when a feisty party-pooper friar named Girolamo Savonarola started preaching “the French are taking over because the leaders (ahem the Medici) are so naughty,” the Florentine public got really worked up, made the Medici persona non grata, and started burning everything fun in giant pyres (the OG bonfire of the vanities).  

I’m sure there’s a real estate lesson somewhere in the Medici story, but this is not that newsletter. This is all just a long introduction to why I googled for the first time in my life, “what’s the difference between a monk and a friar.” The short version is that monks live and work in monasteries and friars are like monks, but they do their business in the outside world. 

The description of monastic life included a word — mendicant — that I had to look up. “Mendicant” comes from the Latin word for begging, and it refers to a monk’s vow of poverty and reliance on alms — fancy for charity.

 ✨ So of course this is what made me think of capital budgets and fundraising. ✨

Very few new and emerging retailers have the personal capital to fund their ventures entirely on their own. Most people have to cobble together personal funds, bank loans, and private investments to cover the budget. Everyone hates the idea of “asking people for money.” No one wants to be a mendicant.

So it’s fairly common that we’re having conversations with Pedal Retailers about how fundraising for your capital budget is not the same as “asking people for money.”

 💵 Pitching your concept to potential investors is giving them the opportunity to make money with your business.

🏦 Seeking a bank loan from a commercial lender is giving them the opportunity to make money with your business.

💰 Similarly, Kickstarter is different from GoFundMe.

I’ve never been in a religious order, but I have seen Sister Act, and I’m pretty sure that people who have chosen a mendicant life don’t sit around fretting about asking people for money. They know it’s part of the lifestyle, and that the money is for a bigger purpose. 

Running a retail business is a lifestyle based on getting people to give you money day in and day out. But there’s a bigger purpose, right? You’re running a business. You’re adding value. You’re contributing to the community. Giving you money is either an investment or a transaction — givers get something back by design.

Getting comfortable with having conversations about money does feel awkward at first, and it usually takes multiple conversations, questions, and a lot of documentation to get to a “yes.” So the more you can center the ask on the business opportunity — not your worth as a human — the better you’re able to handle a “no” without making things weird. 

Feeling exposed and vulnerable is part of being a small business. I know I’m not alone in thinking that you have to be a little dead inside to preserve your sanity. Toughen up about money early, and you’ll thank me later, and even if you think you can’t, you absolutely mendi-CAN! (👈 and you can thank Abby for that!)