Kickstarter Project Updates

How to Create an Expert Kickstarter Budget

Budgeting may not seem like a sexy topic, but it’s one of the most crucial steps for a successful campaign.

Brandon Smithwrick

There are many ways to define success in crowdfunding. After raising $350,000+ from more than 20 publishing campaigns , I don’t think success should be measured by the number of backers or the amount of dollars raised. Instead, I consider a successful campaign one that ends up in the black at the end of the day, meaning that it raised more than it cost to fulfill. Somebody who runs a $500 campaign and ends up with $100 extra at the end has done a much better job than somebody who raised $100,000 and ended up $10,000 in debt.

Budgeting may not seem like a sexy topic, but it’s one of the most crucial steps for a successful campaign. When I started crowdfunding more than a decade ago, I nearly bankrupted myself by failing to properly estimate stretch goals and international shipping costs. Luckily, I was able to skirt disaster, which taught me that a little bit of preparation can save a lot of heartbreak.

The budgeting process is your opportunity to fully visualize your campaign and all its associated parts. It’s exciting to think through all the possibilities of your project, and doing so will help you fully understand the scope of your campaign.

In this article, I’ll show you the seven parts of a good Kickstarter budget: project creation, production, shipping, marketing, your own time, a buffer for contingencies, and administrative fees. I’ll share some tips for each area, and hopefully leave you ready to plan your campaigns confidently — now and far into the future.

Before we get started

This article will take you through a step-by-step budgeting process. It would be helpful to have Excel, Google Sheets, or a similar program open while you read along, or to at least have a sheet of paper to work out your budget.

If you’re making your own spreadsheet, set it up like this:

project budget kickstarter

I’ll fill this in throughout the article, using approximate numbers but not creating an accurate budget.

Project Creation

This is the easiest budget element to explain, because it’s the thing you’re making. Publishing campaigns run a broad gamut of creative literary ideas, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll use the example of creating a book and getting it ready for printing.

This part of the budget only covers taking an idea from conception through “prototyping,” or printing a proof of a book. We’ll deal with the costs for printing and shipping your finished books in the following sections.

“Project creation” here includes editing, proofreading, cover and interior design, blurbs, formatting, and anything else you need to get a book ready to go to print. Write in your costs for each of these elements and any others you’ll be using in your budget spreadsheet, like this:

project budget kickstarter

If you forget something in your first pass through this spreadsheet, it should be easy to insert it later. A budget is a living document that grows and changes as your project evolves. You don’t need to complete it on the first try.

This section will include the costs for producing your book and all your rewards, as well as any charges for storing everything until it’s ready to ship. You could pay to warehouse your books in a storage unit or an office, for instance, but most likely you’ll keep everything in your garage or another room in your house.

Digital rewards, like ebooks, will have minimal production costs, while physical items — like prints, stickers, swag items, and physical books — will have significant production costs that could turn your profit into a deficit if you’re not careful.

When working out your production budget, consider the quantity you’ll be making of each item. Books can be printed either one at a time through print-on-demand (POD) or in large print runs (offset). Depending on which method you choose, your budget can vary wildly. While it’s possible to print a dozen books for $100, if you choose to offset print, those same dozen books will cost several thousand dollars, as the minimum print run is generally between 500 and 1000 books. A major advantage of offset printing is that the unit cost is significantly lower, but you’ll also have to store a large quantity of books.

Items like bookmarks, postcards, and prints often must be ordered in quantities of 100+, whereas swag like coffee mugs and sweatshirts are very expensive to order in small batches and often are not worth the expense. Consider the resulting revenue (total amount raised) vs. profit (total amount raised minus fulfillment costs ) when planning your rewards, as there is often little benefit to producing items that generate lots of revenue but little overall profit. This is one reason Kickstarter encourages creators to consider digital, experiential, and other non-swag rewards that have much lower production costs. Here’s a roundup of 70 reward ideas that won’t cost much to produce or ship.

My recommendation is to make sure every reward tier has at least a 50 percent profit margin, which will help you recoup your project creation costs. You can determine this by taking the total value of the reward and subtracting production, shipping, and administrative costs (these are discussed in further detail below). If a pledge costs a backer $25 and it costs you $12.50 to fulfill, that’s your 50 percent profit margin.

A budget is a living document that grows and changes as your project evolves. You don’t need to complete it on the first try.

There is no magic to finding out how much things will cost to produce, just diligent legwork: contacting production companies, getting quotes, and often going through the order creation process to find the right vendor. Do not guess on this step. Having accurate estimates from the vendors you intend to work with is critical to a strong budget.

If you’re not sure how many of an item you will end up producing, I recommend budgeting for print runs of 50–100 books and other materials, depending on minimum order quantities. For items like mugs or sweatshirts, I recommend starting with 5–10. If you don’t think you can make 5–10 sales of a given item, I recommend cutting it.

Here’s a sample Production section of my budget worksheet:

project budget kickstarter

A note on stretch goals

A full discussion of stretch goals is outside the scope of this article, but it’s worth touching on because this is an area where creators can get themselves into trouble if they’re not careful. Even during the frenzy of an exciting campaign, remember that any stretch goal you decide to offer will need to be paid for, including production and shipping. It’s best to plan out your stretch goals at the budgeting stage — long before you launch your campaign — to make sure you’ve accounted for them fully. I recommend trying to keep the cost of stretch goals to 10 percent of the reward cost differential. For instance, if your campaign goal is $1000 and your stretch goal is $2000, then your differential is $1000, so you should try to keep your production cost to $100.

Once all your rewards are printed and warehoused, they’re ready to be shipped out. Keep in mind that Kickstarter only collects money once, so you'll need to factor all shipping costs into your campaign goal. Some creators choose to work with fulfillment partners who charge for shipping later, but in this article I’ll focus on those who work within the Kickstarter system.

Shipping will almost certainly be more expensive than you think, and the costs increase every 6–12 months, if not more often. But as with production, there is no secret to an accurate shipping budget: just go to USPS (or your local shipper) and price out costs based on the weight and size of each item, to every state and country you intend to ship to.

It may be tempting to skip this step and try to benchmark shipping costs off of other similar campaigns, but please note that you may not have full visibility into someone else’s budget, and you also have no way of knowing whether they’ve appropriately budgeted for shipping. Creators across the board, even experienced ones, tend to underestimate shipping costs.

If you’re an author or publisher in the U.S., you have access to media mail, a significantly reduced shipping rate for books and other educational materials. However, there are many rules about what can and can’t be shipped this way, and if you violate these, your packages can be returned to you for additional postage.

Other than ill-conceived stretch goals, the likeliest killer of a campaign’s profitability is international shipping, which can balloon rapidly and significantly. For this reason, many creators forego international shipping altogether, since it makes their rewards so much more expensive for overseas backers. My recommendation would be to go ahead and offer it, charging whatever it costs, which lets backers make their own decision about what they want to pay. Many will choose digital versions instead, and perhaps you won’t wind up sending anything internationally. But this puts the choice in the backers’ hands and does not require you to absorb those costs.

Regardless, Kickstarter allows you to specify which countries you’ll ship to, so if you want to only send your books to certain places, you have that flexibility. You can also choose whether to include shipping in the reward price or have it added on once a backer has chosen their tier and listed their country.

In addition to shipping charges themselves, this section of your budget also needs to include shipping materials. I recommend a strong book box to prevent corners from being damaged, as well as some packing material to keep your rewards from jostling around. There are many websites that help you print mailing labels at home, which are often both cheaper and faster than waiting in line at the post office.

Here’s my budget worksheet with shipping costs added.

project budget kickstarter

The costs associated with marketing can vary widely, including things like targeted email blasts, digital ad campaigns, exhibiting at live events, running virtual giveaways, and even hiring a publicist or a PR firm to coordinate all those efforts and more.

This means that marketing is the most variable cost in your budget, and each creator will make their own choices based on their comfort level, the money they want to spend, and the scale of their campaign. Some people spend tens of thousands of dollars on advertising, and others spend nothing at all, focusing instead on marketing efforts that can be done for free.

I generally don’t pay for digital advertising, but I work with a PR agency on larger projects, and I’ve spent years booking my own media interviews.

If you decide to pay for advertising, choose a daily budget and stick with it. Creators can spend anywhere from $5 to $5000 (or more) per day on ads, but I recommend keeping to the low end until you’ve run a couple of campaigns — or not paying to advertise at all, unless you have an average pledge value of $50 and significant interest in your project at the pre-launch stage. I consider 200 people following your pre-launch page a good indication of significant interest, but you might set yourself a different number.

project budget kickstarter

Creative people are not always great at compensating ourselves for our time, which is why I think this line item is so important. Writing a book, drawing a comic, and running a campaign are all really hard! So don’t get to the end of it without some sort of reward for all your work.

You can choose anything as your reward, and allocate whatever cost feels appropriate. I have been getting tattoos after my big campaigns recently, so that’s what I’m putting into my budget. Here’s one I received that depicts Anjelica, one of the main characters from my graphic novel Black Market Heroine .

A man's forearm with a tattoo of a pink and purple fantasy character

Yours might be a fancy dinner, a new dress, a massage, or anything that makes you happy, so long as you’re giving yourself a nice treat.

project budget kickstarter

Contingency

Now it’s time to add a little padding, because something unexpected is bound to happen, and you want to be prepared. This can be used if you underestimate any costs, if there are production overruns, if shipping gets more expensive, or for any number of reasons. I always add a 10 percent contingency to every budget. If you are very conservative, you could add 15–20 percent.

If you’re working in Excel, use the formula =SUM(C1:C27)*0.1 to add up all your line items and then multiply by 10 percent to get your contingency. If you have more or fewer cells, adjust the formula accordingly, and if you want more than 10 percent, make that change as well.

The beauty of this line item is that if you don’t use your whole contingency, you can use it to pay yourself a little bonus.

project budget kickstarter

Administrative fees

Finally, there are two main administrative costs for running a Kickstarter campaign: Kickstarter’s 5 percent flat fee and Stripe’s payment processing fee, which is 3–4 percent variable, depending on your bank and the credit cards and locations of your backers. When combined, these fees should be 8–9 percent of your total funds raised, but I always budget 10 percent to be safe. If you are using a backer management system, there may also be costs associated with it which you’ll put in here as well, if you haven’t factored them in elsewhere.

As with your contingency, use the formula =sum(C1:C25)*.1 if you’re working in Excel, making sure to change the cell range and percent if needed.

project budget kickstarter

And there you have it: a Kickstarter budget fit for a crowdfunding expert!

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into a budget, but hopefully this article has helped demystify the process of creating one.

If you get to the end of your budget worksheet and see that your costs have spiraled out of control, don’t worry! That’s precisely why you’ve done this exercise. Now you can go back through and make different choices for each area, working until you feel that you’ve got a goal that’s realistic and achievable. You can also decide to scale down your campaign, but don’t deny the scope of doing your project properly. There is no value in an inaccurate budget.

When you create your budget thoroughly and accurately, you’ll be able to launch your project confidently, knowing that you’ve built a rock-solid foundation for Kickstarter success.

Russell Nohelty is a USA Today –bestselling author, editor, and publisher. He’s run 23 Kickstarter publishing and comic campaigns, raising more than $350,000 on the platform. He runs a Kickstarter Accelerator for publishing and comics projects with USA Today –bestselling author Monica Leonelle that includes more than 30 hours of videos, worksheets, and more. They also wrote the book on the subject, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter , and host the “ Kickstart Your Book Sales ” podcast.

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kickstarter project budget

How to Create a Kickstarter Project Budget

As a crowdfunding creator, your goal is to raise money to bring your awesome idea into the world. But, in order to do that, you’ll have to spend some money. So let’s make sure that you’re spending that money wisely! Developing a Kickstarter project budget is one of the most important things you’ll do before you launch — doing this planning ensures you can cover all of your costs and that you are actually able to bring your project to life. We spoke with Aaron Hansen, VP of Crowd Ox (which recently joined the BackerKit team ) and crowdfunding creator, to get his tips on what creators need to think about while making a budget and setting a funding goal.

Step 1: Outline what you’ll need for every phase of your campaign

Get started by listing out all of your anticipated expenses in a spreadsheet. You don’t have to assign any dollar amounts to anything at this point — this is just a list of everything you’re going to need to develop, launch, market, and deliver your project. “The more comprehensive the list is, the more accurate your final budget will be,” Hansen says. 

To make this process easier, try visualizing these costs in terms of what you’ll need before launching, during your campaign, and after your campaign.

Before your launch

These will be the costs associated with everything that will be featured on your campaign page, as well as any pre-launch advertising and early product development. Your list may include:

  • Copywriting: Will you need to hire an experienced copywriter to write your campaign page content?
  • Art: How will you create the mockups or other campaign art that you want to display?
  • Photography and video: Will you be hiring a professional photographer? Do you need any equipment?
  • Prototypes: Which materials, tools, or services will you be using to develop your prototype ? 
  • Pre-launch promotion: Will you be using ads to build your email list and promote your project before launching? Will you be using BackerKit Launch to message your audience and secure early pledges? Do you need to build a website or landing page?
  • Public relations: Will you need to spend money to get previews or interviews featuring your product?
  • Events and conventions: Will you be attending any industry events for product research or promotional purposes?

During your campaign

Think about what you’ll need to promote and run your campaign. Costs may include:

  • Marketing: How much will you need to set aside for your Kickstarter marketing budget? Will you be using a professional service like BackerKit Marketing to help you reach potential backers once you’ve launched? Will you be creating social media ads on your own? 
  • Crowdfunding services, team members, and other professionals: Who will help you with day-to-day operations and project management? Will you need to hire a team of experts or a company to take the reins?
  • Stretch goals: If you hit your funding goal, will you be creating additional stretch goal rewards ? 

After your campaign

These will be all of the costs associated with delivering a product to your backers after you’re funded. Things you’ll need to consider in this phase include: 

  • Platform and transaction fees: What will you have to pay to your crowdfunding platform once you’re funded? Kickstarter and Indiegogo both deduct fees from the money you raise. 
  • Manufacturing : If you’re creating a physical product, how will you actually bring it to life once you’re funded? How many units do you anticipate you’ll need?
  • Packaging: How will you package items? Will you need to hire a company to help develop special packaging?
  • Pledge Manager: How many backers do you think you’ll have? Depending on the size of your project and the number of backers, you may need a pledge manager to keep track of orders. 
  • Shipping: How much will your product weigh? Which countries will you be shipping it to? Think about freight charges and customs fees. 
  • Taxes: Crowdfunded income is taxable . How will you meet your tax obligations?

kickstarter project budget

Your spreadsheet may look something like this or it could simply be two columns (“expenses” and “costs”) or look like something entirely different and more complex. (You could use the Kickstarter Project Budget tool to outline everything.) Go with whatever format helps you understand your expenses.

crowdfunding tip

Simplifying your Kickstarter project budget

As you’re outlining these costs, note the tasks you can do yourself. If you have a smaller project and end up targeting a more modest goal, you may be able to handle many of the tasks listed above on your own or with a group of friends, using items or equipment you already own. With that being said, be honest with yourself about your bandwidth and ability. If, for instance, you don’t feel confident in your ability to record and edit an engaging campaign video or if you feel your energy would be better spent on another task, find out who can help you deliver the results you’re looking for. 

Step 2: Write down pricing estimates

After outlining everything you’ll need for your campaign, determine the costs associated with completing each task, and write those numbers down in your spreadsheet. This will take time and research, but you shouldn’t cut corners or make up numbers. Reach out to friends, industry contacts, and anyone else in your network for service or product recommendations. Ask other creators who they worked with. 

Once you have a list of options, start getting quotes. For things like manufacturing and shipping, you should get quotes from multiple companies. Talk to local providers to find out what they charge. Check out the pricing pages for the services that you’re interested in. You don’t have to make a commitment to work with any of these people or buy anything at this point. You simply want to make sure that the estimates you’re writing down next to all of your anticipated expenses are as accurate as possible. Your Kickstarter project budget will be based on these estimates.

kickstarter project budget

Your Kickstarter project budget helps you prepare for the unexpected

There may be some unexpected costs . Shipping rates, for instance, aren’t fixed and change every year. The manufacturer you’ve decided to use may increase their rates or change the minimum number of units you have to print. It’s important to build a buffer to offset these surprises. Hansen recommends adding a 10-15% buffer on anything that’s not manufacturing or shipping and overestimating manufacturing and shipping costs by 30%. 

“In my experience, there is always an unexpected cost in manufacturing or shipping,” Hansen says. “For example, if you get shipping costs in April, but don’t ship until December, the costs for shipping will have increased because of holiday shipping rates.” 

Because the largest unexpected costs usually occur during manufacturing and fulfillment, Hansen recommends that you spend extra time trying to understand every part of this process. “Reach out to other creators with similar projects and see if you can gather any additional information on what costs you’re overlooking. If you feel overwhelmed, there are some additional things you can do such as hiring a crowdfunding consultant who understands the process,” he says.

Step 3: Use the information you’ve collected to set your funding goal

Your funding goal should be based on what it will actually cost (with that buffer for unexpected expenses) to make your project a reality. This is why it’s so important to list out everything you’ll need throughout your campaign and get those accurate pricing estimates. 

You don’t want to target a really ambitious goal that far exceeds your actual costs because it’s going to be harder to get funded. At the same time, you don’t want a goal that’s too low. “Setting a low goal that doesn’t actually meet your funding needs is a recipe for disaster,” Hansen says. “Setting a goal lower than your known costs could lead to the project being unfunded or additional out-of-pocket costs.” 

It’s for all of these reasons that you need to have a good understanding of what it’ll take to pay for your project. 

Reasons to increase your funding goal

People turn to crowdfunding for many different reasons. While some are hoping to crowdfund a passion, others have their sights set on building a business. Those who fall into this second group may need to increase their funding goals. “You’ll need to decide what the purpose is for your crowdfunding project and what you want to get out of it,” Hansen says. “If you’re planning to launch a business, you may need a higher funding goal to manufacture additional products to sell later. Your funding goal should include your estimated costs and any additional funding you need to meet your goals.” 

It’s important to note that these additional expenses, like every other expense, should be researched and based on real-world estimates. 

A note on million-dollar campaigns

Kickstarter may have a reputation for churning out multi-million dollar campaigns. These are the campaigns that go viral and everyone hears about. But the truth is that very few creators actually raise that much money. Research conducted by the Hustle shows that 67% of successful projects raise less than $10,000. Of the unsuccessful projects, which are usually targeting larger goals, 2 out of 10 don’t receive any pledges, and 6 out of 10 aren’t even able to reach 20% of their goal. It’s important to keep this data in mind while setting your expectations for your campaign.

Step 4: You’ve made your Kickstarter project budget — now stick to it

You’ve written down every task you need to complete and all of your expenses in your spreadsheet. This will be your Kickstarter project budget and it’s important to follow it as closely as you can. 

Limit on the fly changes because if you don’t, costs may increase and your campaign will become more complex. “ While everyone wants additional stretch goals and free upgrades, they can really ruin a crowdfunding budget quickly,” Hansen says. “ You’ll get suggestions on how to change your product. While these can be useful, the changes could also have serious repercussions for your budget. Decide what you want, plan for that, and stick with it.” 

You can’t anticipate every twist and turn of your campaign. But if you have a Kickstarter project budget in place, it’ll be easier to deal with any monetary surprises and stay organized. Make sure you’re as thorough as possible and you’ll be on track to launching a successful campaign. 

kickstarter project budget

project budget kickstarter

Bots High , Development

  • How to Figure the True Cost of a Kickstarter Project

project budget kickstarter

Focus of Project

Cost to complete project, project fees, create backer levels, project number of backers for each level, cost of fulfillment, true project budget.

Check out my latest Kickstarter film Strike: The Greatest Bowling Story Ever Told , now featured on The New York Times’ Made with Kickstarter series.

This post is a dissection of my Kickstarter project for my documentary Bots High to both figure out a) how much I needed to raise to successfully finish filming my project and b) have enough money to fulfill all the rewards.

Before posting, I did a lot of research into successfully funded projects. This post will get a bit mathematically nerdy, but hang in there because I think it’s quiet useful. (Check out my last post, Behavior Patterns of Kickstarter Funders , because the data in that post is what I use to figure out the cost)

I’m not a mathematician. The purpose of this post is to give you something to think about and make sure you’re aware of everything that goes into successfully pulling off a Kickstarter project. If you see more accurate or easier ways to figure out the total, please let me know.

Here’s the breakdown of the steps needed to figure out the true cost of your Kickstarter project:

  • Project Number of Backers

The first big question is do I go for all the money I actually need (to film, edit, and send to festivals) or focus the project on one specific event, and take it one step at a time, with future projects for different stages of the production if need be. I decided to go the latter route, and focus the Kickstarter project on getting the money needed to film the final championship of my film and wrap up all production.

This is pretty straightforward budgeting – what’s the bare minimum you need to complete the project you’re proposing? Be honest, and think of everything. I budgeted that to rent additional cameras, hire and feed a crew, get rental insurance, and travel to San Francisco to film the second championship and do interviews would be around $7000.

Total cost to complete filming Bots High: $7000

Kickstarter takes 5% of whatever you raise to cover their costs. Fair enough, we all need to stay in business. Now you might think, “Oh, I’ll just take that out of what I raise, I don’t want to pass that cost onto the funders.”

Well, if you were 100% honest and your project budget is the bare minimum you need to complete it, then where is that couple of hundred dollars supposed to come from?

Also, Amazon takes its own fee per transaction. This isn’t as simple as a flat 5% (it’s a combination of a flat fee and variable percentage which hovers around 2.9%). For the sake of simplification, I used 3.2%. If you have a more accurate estimate, please let me know (As Andrew did below ).

Kickstarter Fee: 5% of $7000 = $350

Amazon Fees: 3.2% of $7000 = $224

New Project Budget = $7574

Create a variety of backer levels with different rewards. I’ll post a brainstorm I did of possible things to offer next week. In the Behavior Patterns post, the numbers used in the graph are the most popular levels, so if you want to stick with what people have come to expect, use a variety of those levels. Make sure you have something on the very low end ($1-$5) and on the high end ($2500 – $5000). Yes, most projects don’t get any high end backers, but some do, so it’s worth having it.

Ok, now it’s math time. In order to do the next step, which is to figure out approximately how many DVDs and t-shirts and posters you’ll need to fulfill your backer levels, you need to have a rough idea of how many backers to expect for each level. Using the pie chart in the Behavior Patterns post, you can guesstimate how many backers you’ll get/need for each level.

So right now the budget is $7500, and from the pie chart I can predict 15% of the backers will give $50. Here’s the formula:

(Total Budget $ / Reward Level $ * Percentage in Decimal Form = # of Backers Needed)

($7500 / $50 * .15 = 22 Backers)

So I’ll hopefully have 22 backers at the $50 level, and need to plan to supply 22 people with everything I offered at that level.

Repeat with each level

(Note: The math works up until the very high levels, around $1000 and higher. One large donation will pleasantly throw this all out of whack.)

Whether or not this is an extra expense for your Kickstarter project (or if you could call it an expense at all) is debatable and varies from project to project. I’ll explain in a second.

But first, you need to figure out how much it’ll cost to fulfill all the rewards you’ve now promised your backers. That means DVD, t-shirts, posters, stickers, props, dinners, etc.

Not only do you need to know how much each item will cost to make, but how much it’ll be for packaging and shipping. Yeah, lots of details.

Now I say debatable if it’s all an expense related to the Kickstarter project because a lot of these items are things you’d need to buy anyways for marketing and distribution (t-shirts, posters, DVDs for screeners and festivals). And of course the more you buy quantity wise, the lower the individual cost of each item is. And depending on what stage you Kickstarter project focuses on, this might be stuff you already have. Either way you should just be fully aware of everything that you’ll need to satisfy your backers, and not just your project’s needs.

So for each level you need to figure out how much of the actual funding you’ll be getting, minus expenses.

For my $25 level, which is a DVD and updates and input on the film, it’ll cost me about $6 to fulfill the DVD, so I’m getting $19 towards the project.

Assuming I don’t get any large donations, I know I’ll need 150 people to buy a DVD (which would bring in $3750), but it’ll cost $900 to fulfill.

So you need to figure out all the fulfillment expenses for each level, add them up, and budget them in the project total. If you already have some of these rewards already made, then budget the packaging and shipping costs.

Total Cost of Fulfillment: $1538

Kickstarter Goal: $9000

That’s what I put on my project. Higher than I initially thought when I first had the idea to do a Kickstarter project, but I think it would be worse if I set a lower project goal, got all the money, and then realize I need another $1500 to print and ship all the rewards I promised.

Update: These numbers are slightly more variable than presented, because the fees are coming off the total budget and I figured them out earlier. Read Andrew’s comment below for a better formula and keep in mind a little contingency padding might be in order.

I hope you found this useful, or at least it gave you something to think about. If you did, then why not support that project that prompted this study?

Visit the Bots High Kickstarter Project!

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  • Kickstarter

Kickstarter wants creators to actually think about their budget ahead of launch

They can publicize how they’ll spend backers’ money.

By Ashley Carman

Share this story

Kickstarter wants creators on its platform to be more transparent with backers about how their money is being used. The crowdfunding platform is launching a feature today called Project Budget that’ll allow creators to display their budget as a pie chart on their campaign page.

Although it’s optional for creators, Meg Heim, who leads Kickstarter’s system integrity team, says projects that use it will be more likely to be featured on Kickstarter’s homepage. These projects will also get a special badge on their campaign, which might signify to backers that the creators are at least trying to be more transparent.

That said, Kickstarter isn’t independently verifying or tracking how money gets used, so just because a creator says they’re using the money in one way doesn’t mean they have to stick with it. The company does, however, want to use the data to eventually help creators make more educated decisions about their funding goals. The big idea is that Kickstarter will have access to lots of campaigns’ initial budgets, and it can then follow up to learn what the costs actually ended up being, which can be fed into Kickstarter’s system to improve the budget recommendations for future campaigns.

This public budget builds on a product launch from earlier this year, the Funding Calculator , which gave creators a free tool to help them lay out their taxes and fees behind the scenes. This new tool makes that budget visual and public.

As far as whether this tool will help more backers receive the products they support, I’d guess it might. If creators can go into a project with realistic budget expectations — especially about costs they didn’t think about, like taxes or international shipping — they might be able to set more realistic funding goals and not run out of cash. At the same time, I can still imagine creators making an inaccurate budget and ending up having to raise more money or shutter their project altogether.

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Kickstarter’s new budget tool could save projects from collapse

Trevor Mogg

Kickstarter has come up with a new tool designed to help creators work out their budget more effectively, and also enable them to be more transparent with those who back their ideas.

With some projects collapsing due to a lack of financial planning, the tool, called Project Budget, can provide valuable assistance to creators in the important early stages of their work.

“Project Budget is essentially a budgeting spreadsheet that’s available from the Funding tab in the project editor,” Kickstarter’s Meg Helm said in a post announcing the new feature. “Creators can use it to map out the cost of their entire project, from prototyping and R&D to packaging and shipping.”

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While some creators already lay out in great detail exactly how they intend to execute a project, the new tool aims to encourage creators who might not ordinarily offer such information to do so.

Funding Calculator

Project Budget has some similarities to the Funding Calculator that Kickstarter launched in August, but the company describes the latest tool as “much more robust.”

And unlike the Funding Calculator, Project Budget’s custom graph showing estimated costs can be easily shared with potential patrons, which could be what it takes to turn someone from being merely interested in a project into a vital, cash-giving backer.

Helm said the new tool will help to remind creators “of important expenses they may not have considered, such as the cost of paying themselves and team members.”

She added: “We hope that this feature will give backers a sense of where their pledges are going, and how much it actually costs to bring an idea to life.”

The new feature will be available first for projects in the Design and Technology categories, with additional sections added in the near future.

The Cost To Create

Project Budget is part of a suite of Kickstarter tools and content called The Cost To Create, which focuses on the funding needed to turn an idea into something real.

The company said it’s also looking to build a tool that allows creators to share with backers how they’re spending their funds during the “making” phase of their campaign, which, depending on how a particular project proceeds, may be different from the creator’s initial forecasts during the planning stages.

As a backer, there’s always an element of risk when you cough up cash for a crowdfunding project, but hopefully Kickstarter’s new tool can help a campaign meet its goals as outlined in the original pitch.

For a look at some awesome tech projects currently running on Kickstarter and similar sites, be sure to drop by Digital Trends’ popular and regularly updated Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet  feature.

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Trevor Mogg

There's a scene in Mission Impossible 3 that you might recall. In it, our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tackles the movie's villain, holds him at gunpoint, and forces him to read a bizarre series of sentences aloud.

"The pleasure of Busby's company is what I most enjoy," he reluctantly reads. "He put a tack on Miss Yancy's chair, and she called him a horrible boy. At the end of the month, he was flinging two kittens across the width of the room ..."

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs. [CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would. Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

PledgeBox helps manage Kickstarter & Indiegogo Orders, enhance delivery, add-on purchases, extra shipping, tax, and restore failed backers’ payments.

How to Crafting a Kickstarter Project Budget

Master your Kickstarter budget with our expert guide. Turn your brilliant idea into reality and achieve crowdfunding success.

Cosma Zhang

May 22, 2023

Transforming your brilliant idea into a tangible reality as a crowdfunding creator requires meticulous financial planning. Fret not, as we are here to support you every step of the way! Before launching your campaign, developing a well-structured project budget is crucial. Our comprehensive guide aims to assist you throughout this process, empowering you to make informed decisions and greatly enhancing your chances of success. Get ready to conquer Kickstarter with a thoughtfully crafted budget that paves the way for your greatness!

Step 1: Planning Your Kickstarter Budget for Success

Create a detailed spreadsheet outlining campaign phases and expenses. Categorize costs into pre-launch, campaign, and post-campaign. Thoroughness leads to an accurate budget for a successful Kickstarter.

Pre-Launch Expenses: Setting the Stage for Success

Before launching your campaign, it is essential to allocate funds for various elements that will be featured on your campaign page, as well as for pre-launch advertising and product development. Take into account the following expenses:

  • Copywriting: Consider whether you need the expertise of a seasoned copywriter to craft compelling campaign page content.
  • Artwork: Determine how you will create mockups or visual assets to showcase your project.
  • Photography and video: Decide whether you will invest in professional photography or video production and consider any additional equipment requirements.
  • Prototypes: Identify the materials, tools, or services necessary to develop your prototypes.
  • Pre-launch promotion: Assess whether you will utilize ads to build your email list and generate buzz before the official launch. Additionally, consider leveraging the PledgeBox Newsletter service to engage your audience and instantly capture the attention of many backers for your project.
  • Public relations: Are there any costs associated with securing product previews or interviews for media coverage?
  • Events and conventions: Determine if you will attend industry events to conduct product research or promote your project.

Budgeting for these pre-launch expenses lays a solid foundation for a successful Kickstarter campaign, ensuring you have the necessary resources to present and promote your project to potential backers effectively.

project budget kickstarter

Campaign Expenses: Promoting and Running Your Campaign

Before launching your campaign, it is essential to allocate funds for various elements that will be featured on your campaign page, as well as for pre-launch advertising and product development. Consider the following expenses that you may incur during your campaign:

  • Marketing: Determine your Kickstarter marketing budget. Will you engage professional services like PledgeBox Marketing or create social media ads?
  • Team and Professional Support: Assess the need for additional assistance in managing day-to-day operations and project management. Will you hire experts or enlist the services of a company?
  • Stretch goals: If you achieve your funding goal, will you introduce stretch goal rewards to incentivize backers and enhance the campaign experience?

By carefully accounting for these campaign expenses, you can ensure a well-executed and successful Kickstarter campaign. This allows you to allocate resources effectively, maximize your outreach to potential backers, and create an engaging and rewarding experience for all participants.

Post-Campaign Considerations: Delivering to Backers

Let's dive into the expenses involved in delivering your product to your backers:

  • Platform and transaction fees: What will be deducted from your funds by the crowdfunding platform (e.g., Kickstarter, Indiegogo)?
  • Manufacturing: What is your plan for bringing your physical product to fruition? And how many units are you anticipating to produce?
  • Packaging: Do you have a packaging plan for your items? Would you need help from a company that specializes in customized packaging solutions?
  • Pledge Manager: What is your estimated number of backers? Would you consider utilizing a professional pledge manager such as PledgeBox to handle order tracking?
  • Shipping: What are the shipping considerations? Calculate shipping costs based on product weight and destination countries, including freight charges and potential customs fees.
  • Taxes: How will you manage tax obligations associated with crowdfunded income?

To guarantee that you deliver on your project promises and provide a seamless experience for your backers, it's important to address any post-campaign expenses promptly.

project budget kickstarter

Step 2: Getting Accurate Pricing Estimates 

Now that you have outlined all the tasks for your campaign, it's time to determine the associated costs. To ensure accuracy, take the time to research and collect pricing information from various sources. Don't hesitate to reach out to your network, industry contacts, and fellow creators for recommendations and insights. For manufacturing and shipping, obtain quotes from multiple companies. Additionally, explore the pricing pages of relevant services and talk to local providers. It's crucial to write down precise estimates for each expense because your Kickstarter project budget will depend on them. Remember, accuracy is key.

Prepare for the Unexpected: Building a Buffer in Your Budget

Keep in mind that there may be unforeseen costs along the way. Shipping rates can fluctuate; manufacturers might adjust their rates or minimum order quantities. Having a buffer in your budget is crucial to account for these surprises. Add a 10-15% buffer for non-manufacturing and shipping expenses, and overestimate manufacturing and shipping costs by 30%.

Manufacturing and shipping often come with unexpected expenses. For instance, shipping costs can spike during the holiday season. Take the time to understand these processes and seek advice from other creators thoroughly. If you feel overwhelmed, don't hesitate to reach out to crowdfunding consultants.

By being prepared and proactive, you can better handle any unexpected costs that may come up and ensure the success of your Kickstarter campaign.

project budget kickstarter

Step 3: Setting Your Funding Goal: Accuracy is Key

Calculate your funding goal based on the actual costs of bringing your project to life, including the buffer for unexpected expenses. Avoid setting overly ambitious, challenging, or common goals that won't cover your funding needs. A thorough understanding of your project's financial requirements is essential for a successful campaign.

Expanding Your Funding Goal: Building for the Future

If your crowdfunding project has a business-oriented focus, it is a good idea to increase your funding goal to support future endeavors. For example, if you intend to launch a project, you may need extra funds to manufacture add-ons for future sales. Ensure that your funding goal increase includes estimated costs and additional funding required to achieve your goals. Always conduct thorough research and rely on realistic estimates for these extra expenses.

project budget kickstarter

Step 4: Maintaining Budget Discipline for a Successful Campaign

Now that you have your comprehensive Kickstarter project budget, it's crucial to adhere to it closely. Resist making impulsive changes, as they can quickly surpass your budget. Even though additional goals and upgrades may seem appealing, they can strain your finances. It is best to stay committed to your original plan and avoid any deviations.

Although unexpected events may arise during your campaign, having a solid budget will help you tackle any financial surprises and maintain order. Thorough planning and execution are vital to launching a successful campaign.

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Understanding Kickstarter's Referral Metrics: A Comprehensive Guide

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December 21, 2023

Connect with your backers: the human element in kickstarter campaigns, november 28, 2023, get your crowdfunding project started, january 29, 2024, maximizing your project's social media presence, january 11, 2024.

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Budgeting Your Kickstarter Book Project, with Free Worksheet

by Don Leeper | Jun 17, 2015 | Dropship and Distribution , Kickstarter | Crowdfunded

Budgeting Your Kickstarter Book Project

When you are budgeting your  Kickstarter  book project, making an accurate budget is important. You want to set your fundraising goal at a reasonable level, but you don’t want the project to fail because you underestimate the real costs. Book publishers have a very useful tool for addressing just these questions: the Title Profit & Loss worksheet, which is created for each new book the publisher is considering publishing. These P&Ls lend themselves well to creating a Kickstarter budget, with appropriate modifications. In this post, I outline a Kickstarter-adapted Title P&L for a project with book distribution limited to your backers, and selling direct yourself. Next week, I’ll provide a P&L for selling through broader channels, with options including the book trade and selling as an Amazon merchant.

You can download this basic Title P&L worksheet modified for a Kickstarter project here or at the end of this post. There are no doubt items in this sample P&L worksheet that aren’t relevant to your project, and probably relevant items that are missing. It’s easy to import and modify the worksheet to fit your project in Excel, Apple Numbers, or any other spreadsheet program. Be sure and check your work carefully after modifying—it is very easy to introduce errors into worksheets!

The Book P&L

Because book publishers have limited capital to invest in book projects, they examine the income potential for each new book prior to publication. If they don’t do this they go out of business, because they publish too many books that lose money. Its just that simple. This applies to both for-profit and nonprofit publishers: it doesn’t matter whether the capital comes from sales or donations or both, it is always limited. The main tool for evaluating a new book’s potential is the title P&L which, when suitably modified, is the perfect tool for building a budget for a Kickstarter publishing project.

Title P&Ls are built in five sections: 1) Sales estimates 2) Income, 3) Cost of Goods Sold, 4) Overhead, and 5) Net profit (or loss). To arrive at the net profit is simple arithmetic:

Income — Cost of Goods Sold — Overhead = Net profit

I’m going to change the terminology a little bit because:

  • You may very well be putting your project together as an individual artist or as a one-time collaboration rather than as an established organization with ongoing expenses, so instead of “Overhead” I’ll call fixed expenses “Project Expenses.”
  • Book publishing profits are highly sensitive to the number of books sold, so it is useful to strictly segregate costs that vary with the number of books sold, like printing and freight, from one-time costs like cover design. These kinds of costs are called “Cost of Goods Sold,” but to be crystal clear I’ll call them “Variable Costs.”
  • Net profit may not be exactly the right term, because you may very well not be in this for profit. I’m calling it “Surplus” instead, or “Shortfall” if it is a negative number.

Here’s the bones of a simplified title P&L modified for a Kickstarter project:

Income — Variable costs — Project expenses = Surplus (or shortfall)

The Title P&L, Modified for Budgeting Your Kickstarter Project

Here’s a simplified P&L with hypothetical numbers plugged in. The first section estimates book sales through various channels. The downloadable spreadsheet has more detail in it. Explanations of each item follow.

In this simplified P&L, books are only sold directly by you in person or through your website. I also include the no-revenue copies for backers and staff here because doing so facilitates keeping track of total number of copies required.

Income is all the money coming into the project, including the book sales income calculated above and your Kickstarter funding. I’m showing Kickstarter’s fees and credit card processing fees as negatives in the Income section because those will reduce the total amount of cash you have to work with right off the bat.

Variable costs

Variable costs are all those costs that theoretically vary with how many books you sell and ship.

Printing: It gets tricky with book printing because printing cost per book depends partly on how many books you print in a run; so on one hand, you don’t want to print too few at a time and see your printing cost per book go too high, and on the other hand, you don’t want to sink money into printing books that will never sell or otherwise be distributed. Book publishers face this dilemma all the time: they never know how many copies of a book are actually going to sell, and therefore how many to print. Kickstarter actually makes the process a bit more rational, because you can estimate up front how many copies to give to backers based on your fundraising target and estimated average donation amounts. (Kickstarter has lots of data about average donation amounts and other stats.)

Shipping materials: check out online catalogs such as Uline for pricing. If you use a fulfillment service like Itasca Books shipping materials will be included in the fulfillment fee.

Shipping/Postage: You can estimate these by using the USPS or UPS websites using an estimate of the book’s weight. (See handy online book weight estimator .) Err on the high side here: it is very easy to underestimate shipping costs!

Fulfillment Services: There are services that will provide pick, pack ship services at reasonable cost. Here’s one: Itasca Books . (Full disclosure: Itasca is Bookmobile’s book distribution sister company.)

Credit card fees: It is probably wise to assume that people will be paying you with a credit or debit card. Square is handy for small organizations and projects.

Gross Margin

Gross margin is Income minus Variable costs. In a classic Title P&L this can be useful in determining how many books you need to sell to break even. I do not address a breakeven calculation here because the revenue from Kickstarter makes the calculation more complicated than it is useful for a simple budget.

PROJECT EXPENSES

Project expenses are those things that need to be done whether you sell one book or one million. The cover design, for example, only needs to be done once. Note that I have included fundraising expenses, so that the budget really covers the period prior to Kickstarter funding as well as after.

SURPLUS (or shortfall)

Surplus (or shortfall) is what’s left after all the costs and expenses are subtracted from the income. Obviously it can be a positive (surplus) or negative (shortfall).

The worksheet

Download the Title P&L Sample here . The great thing about worksheets is that you can try all kinds of scenarios with different selling prices, sales quantities, fundraising goals, etc. However, there are two seriously bad things about worksheets:

  • It is extremely easy to have an error in a formula that is hard to detect without systematically checking all formulae in the worksheet. In fact, two  very influential economists got egg on their faces for just this. You have to double-check formulae!
  • It is extremely easy to fool yourself by building a plan based on a worksheet with too-optimistic sales or cost assumptions. (This is the bitter voice of experience speaking here!) You have to be optimistic or you wouldn’t do a Kickstarter project to begin with, but strive for realistic assumptions and ways to minimize risks.

Do your research and use the best numbers you can in the worksheet: the numbers in the worksheet are not meant to represent reality, though in some cases they may not be far off! Also, I make no guarantees that the worksheet is 100% perfect, and it is very easy to mess up a formula when you make changes to a worksheet. As I say to my fourteen-year-old regarding her math lessons: check your work!

Careful: A Project Surplus Does Not Equal Cash Flow!

This Title P&L shows the project surplus (shortfall) at the completion of the whole project. The numbers can work beautifully in this kind of projection yet you can still have periods in the middle of the project where your cash outlay is more than your cash coming in. Two things can help make sure this doesn’t happen: 1) set your fundraising minimum to cover all anticipated Variable Costs and Project Expenses, and 2) break out your cash flow month by month, showing money coming in from all sources and all money going out.

Next Week: Tackling the Book Trade in a Title P&L

Selling through wholesale book channels (aka the book trade) complicates the P&L because you wind up with two or more selling prices: the retail price, and wholesale prices for book wholesalers and bookstores. Also, you will need a distributor to sell to the book trade, and distributors charge fees that have to be factored in. Another complication is that to sell into the book trade, you have to allow books to be returned from stores for credit, which multiplies the uncertainty about how how many copies to print and increases costs. In fact, there are extremely good arguments for not selling books through the book trade. Next week I’ll run through a Title P&L with book trade sales factored in so you can get a picture of how it works, in case you have your heart set on selling your Kickstarter-funded book through the trade.

Need a printing quote or more information?

I’d be happy to answer questions—you can contact me via email .
 I welcome any feedback, including that pointing out my errors! You can request a printing quote here .

Don Leeper is founder and CEO of Bookmobile, which has provided design, printing, eBook and distribution services for book publishers since 1982.

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Brandon Sanderson will bring his next project to Kickstarter competitor Backerkit

Tabletop remains an important area of focus, says Backerkit CEO

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Share All sharing options for: Brandon Sanderson will bring his next project to Kickstarter competitor Backerkit

Backerkit’s logo, a series of mountains with a flag on one of its peaks, on a yellow background.

When Backerkit’s crowdfunding platform formally launched in mid-2023, the company quickly made strides in the tabletop space, primarily by courting disaffected Kickstarter users . Now co-founder and CEO Maxwell Salzberg tells Polygon that his company already has twice the number of tabletop campaigns committed to the platform in 2024 as it did for all of last year — which isn’t bad for what he calls a “bootstrapped” company. The goal for 2024? Keep the crowdfunding ball rolling while also managing its expansive pledge-management services.

Backerkit was founded in 2012, just as the surge in crowdfunding for both tabletop and video games kicked off in earnest. But while Kickstarter spent the last decade bringing people together for the now customary month-long push that helps get new games paid for, Backerkit is capable of handling pretty much everything else. Its pledge-management business begins where Kickstarter’s crowdfunding business leaves off, helping creators and their customers arrange for things like late pledges, add-ons, shipping, and customer service. Today, Salzberg tells Polygon that his organization manages projects that account for “40 to 60% of the [tabletop] dollars on Kickstarter [in] any given month.”

Tabletop creators and their customers are the largest part of that, which is why it made sense for Backerkit to begin offering its own crowdfunding solution — directly competing with Kickstarter.

“It’s not untrue to say tabletop is [home to] the innovators in the crowdfunding space, which is funny and awesome and wonderful,” Salzberg said. Part of that innovation, he said, has been in creating multiple crowdfunding campaigns, one right after another. So-called serial crowdfunding is here to stay, Salzberg said, and that’s created a need for a more intimate and sustainable relationship between backers and the creators they love.

“I don’t think the people that are launching a Backerkit think they’re just going to do a project and walk away from it,” Salzberg said. “They want to make whatever weird, freaky thing they’re making [into a career]. And to me, that’s the last cool thing on the internet. [Crowdfunding is] this amazing platform. You can make whatever, cool, weird, interesting, strange thing [you want to do]. And if you want to make it what you do, this is a way to do that.”

Backerkit’s biggest tabletop partners in 2023 all came from Kickstarter. Its top five tabletop campaigns included the Gloomhaven: Grand Festival , a new tabletop role-playing game from MCDM , and a series of projects by Monte Cook Publishing . But with only seven months since it launched out of beta, the San Francisco-based company says it’s too early to compare it with its closest competitor, Gamefound. The Poland-based crowdfunding company left beta well ahead of Backerkit, and that head start is already paying dividends — including a first-of-its-kind deal with CMON , whose nearly 60 successful campaigns account for more than $108 million in earnings since 2012 on Kickstarter.

Salzberg has his own high-profile partnerships to build on in 2024. First up is another convert, author Brandon Sanderson, whose nearly $42 million campaign for four secret novels remains the single largest campaign in Kickstarter history . His next crowdfunding campaign, currently billed as a series of collectible leather-bound books , kicks off March 5 on Backerkit.

Update (Feb. 22): After our story was published, Backerkit reached out to clarify figures related to the percentage of Kickstarter tabletop campaigns it manages. We’ve adjusted the original story to reflect this.

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How to Create a Kickstarter Budget That Will Make Your Project Successful

  • Post author: Admin
  • Post published: November 25, 2023
  • Post category: Evergreen Content
  • Post comments: 0 Comments

Welcome to my blog post about creating an expert Kickstarter budget. In this article, I will provide you with all the information you need to create a successful project on Kickstarter. Let’s get started!

Introduction to Kickstarter Budgeting

Kickstarter is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms in the world. It allows creators and entrepreneurs like yourself to raise funds for your projects from supporters who believe in what you do. However, before you can launch your campaign, it’s essential that you have a clear understanding of how much money you need to make your project a success. This is where budgeting comes into play.

Determining Your Project Goals and Funding Needs

The first step in creating an expert Kickstarter budget is determining your project goals and funding needs. You should start by asking yourself some critical questions such as:

What are the primary objectives of your project?

How much money do you need to achieve these goals?

Are there any additional costs that you haven’t considered yet?

Once you have answered these questions, you can move onto setting a realistic timeline and budget.

Setting a Realistic Timeline and Budget

To set a realistic timeline and budget for your Kickstarter project, you need to consider several factors such as the scope of your project, the resources available to you, and the amount of time you have to complete everything. Here are some tips to help you set a realistic timeline and budget:

project budget kickstarter

Break down your project into smaller tasks and estimate the time required for each task.

Research similar projects on Kickstarter to get an idea of the average budget and timeline.

Be conservative when estimating your expenses to avoid overspending.

Allocating Resources for Marketing and Advertising

Marketing and advertising are crucial components of a successful Kickstarter campaign. To allocate resources effectively, you need to understand where your target audience spends their time online and what channels work best for promoting your project. Some effective marketing strategies include social media advertising, email marketing, influencer outreach, and content creation.

Managing Unexpected Expenses and Contingencies

No matter how well you plan your Kickstarter budget, unexpected expenses can arise during the course of your project. To manage these expenses, you should build contingency plans into your budget. For example, you could allocate a portion of your budget towards unforeseen costs or add buffer time to your timeline to allow for delays.

Conclusion: Final Tips for Creating an Expert Kickstarter Budget

Creating an expert Kickstarter budget takes time, effort, and careful planning. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that your project is financially viable and has a high chance of success. Remember to stay organized, be flexible, and always prioritize transparency with your backers. Good luck with your Kickstarter journey!

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