Fund raising for personal projects

[sebzzz]

Hi,

I'll try to make this short, to get more info about me, you can consult my other post: , Help need to find life purpose

In brief, I'm a 20 years old full time student and I have a couple of projects:

1- I'm training for my first marathon in May 2008. For an even better challenge, I'm training with the goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon (I have to run the marathon in less than 3h10 for that). Registration for the May 2008 Ottawa Marathon is 75$ plus I need to buy some clothes to be able to train in winter (maybe 250$ worth of clothing)

2- I'm completing college studies in Advertising. It's an interesting field, but definitively not to work directly afterwards, it's way to far from my values. In this course, we have a project for which we have to raise money to go present in Montreal, but if we don't get the amount necessary, we have to pay from our pockets (100$, plus printed material for the project: about 200$)

3- I'm starting a little business in my region to promote Linux as an alternative to Linux. You can see the website at Solutions Linux - Services Linux Ã* domicile en Outaouais - Accueil I don't have big expectations for now for this business but I believe as Linux gets known more, people will start to wonder about this technology.

4- Me and a friend are working on building websites for businesses in my region and we are already getting some contracts, but it's not moving that fast, and with school it's hard to put a lot of energy in that.

Now, my problem is that I'm in an kind of urgent need for money. I spent a little too much this summer and some things didn't happen like I wanted.

For a couple of years now, I've been with the idea that having a business is much more empowering than having a job, and the idea of working for someone in the future looks like a nightmare for me.

I would like to know if you people think that doing a kind personal fundraising for one or more of those projects would be a good idea. Something like going door to door to ask some money. Is it morally good to do so? Will people be willing to pay me some money for my projects.

I know it's a kind of unusual way to get money, but my studies and projects demand me a lot, and I don't have time to work part time while in school. Of course I'm not the kind of person who just want to get things from others and never give back, I'm currently working on finding the special thing I want to devote my life to, and it will include helping others in a certain way for sure. I'm thinking about giving speeches to help people in different areas of their lifes.

What would be the best way to ask people for money and explaining the big picture of my projects?

Would offering people a CD with Open Source software (Firefox, OpenOffice and Gimp) and explaining them about Linux and the possibilities and asking them for some money for my personal projects be a better idea? Helping my little Linux business to be known by the same time?

Thanks in advance for the answers, and feel free to ask me questions, sometimes words don't make justice to ideas they represent.

[JiriNovotny]

Hi sebzzz,

If I were you, I would look for ways to make money without spending money. There are plenty of such no risk business opportunities. I think it's more fun too, using only the money you earn through your business.

[R0b]

You should go to the forums.digitalpoint.com, where it's easy to find freelance writing, programming, design work, etc. Lots of small $100 jobs. They add up quickly.