Mississippians who want to start a business will soon have a new method to raise money using the Internet. The Secretary of State is launching a way to connect investors with entrepreneurs.
Starting early next month, Mississippians with a business idea will be able to crowd-funding start up capital by posting their proposal on the secretary of state's website.
Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann says investors will be able to look at business plans and buy a share of a potential new business to help it raise capital to start.
"There will be great new companies coming out of this. There will be really neat ideas. And there will be some where you will think 'what are they thinking?'. When you go through that there will be Mississippians out here and some of them will do very well and some of them will fail," Hosemann said.
Hosemann says when an entrepreneur reaches 50-percent of their goal, they will get the money to start work.
If that business fails, the investor loses their money.
John Brandon, manager of the entrepreneur Center at the Mississippi Development Authority, says one of the biggest problems for entrepreneurs is raising the money to start.
"They generally know what they are trying to do and how to reach that market. Where they fall short is making sure they have adequate funding. And so this really does open the gates out there to make it possible for more people to be able to access money to get their business up and going," Brandon said.
Mississippians interested in starting a business will have to file with the Secretary of State but the whole process is online and free of charge.
