Bar, restaurant owners turn to crowdfunding
When patrons of Orlando’s Claddagh Cottage discovered the owner was being evicted to make way for a drugstore, they turned to crowdfunding to help the Irish pub reopen nearby.
The campaign raised $17,500 in four months through a crowdfunding website, and now owner Scott Vocca is renovating a new spot a few miles away from his old location on Curry Ford Road.
From pubs to sandwich shops, customers are banding together to rescue their favorite small businesses — particularly restaurants, eateries and bars — after unforeseen calamities or misfortune.
Through web campaigns, customers raised nearly $10,000 for a Metro-West coffee shop to reopen after a fire, and more than $3,000 when a Thornton Park deli owner fell ill and temporarily closed her shop.
It’s the latest twist for the
growing crowdfunding industry, where people go to the internet to raise money for their favorite causes, ideas and people.
Crowdfunding raised about $8 billion in 2015 for causes and businesses, according to industry tracker Massolution. Among those were the $7.8 million for victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in June on fundraising site Gofundme.com.
“Usually companies are using crowdfunding to find investors for a business or to launch a new product,” said Ron BenZeev, founder of World Housing Solutions and a frequent speaker at business workshops about entrepreneurship. “Sometimes it can really validate what you are doing, shows you there are people out there that like what you have to sell.”
But crowdfunding for an established business? That’s not as common, Ben-Zeev said.
Unforeseen expenses of $10,000 or $15,000 sometimes mean the doom of small businesses, said Jerry Ross, president of the National Entrepreneur Center in Orlando.
Achilles Art Café owner Achilles “Ash” Popal said he was nearly ready to quit when a fire tore through his MetroWest business in December. In two weeks, 189 people raised $9,485 for the cafe. It came in sums of $5 to $100. He used it to make repairs and cover his insurance deductible.
“Without them, I would not have the motivation to start again,” Popal said.
A customer at his café, Jeannie Albers started the fundraiser shortly after hearing about the fire.
“It really has been incredibly sweet to see the community respond so lovingly,” Albers said. “People really feel connected to the shop, many because they have a friend in Ash, some because they feel they’ve found a cozy and unique gem of a café.”
She said customers didn’t want to lose the cafe.
The café hosted a grand-reopening Friday with free drinks, dessert and a live band to try to repay his benefactors.
“I need to work much harder and make it much more successful than before,” Popal said. “Because otherwise I will disappoint everybody.”
Customers also took to Gofundme.com for Thornton Park deli and grocery Handy Pantry in December when co-owner Arati Rai was sick and in the hospital.
Rai’s husband, Dev Arai, said the $3,150 helped pay bills to cover costs during the six days the Handy Pantry was closed.
GoFundMe has become the most popular venue for raising money for Central Florida business, because the money goes directly to owners. Indiegogo and Kickstarter are other major crowd-funding platforms that focus on businesses and product launches.
However, crowdfunding isn’t always enough to help businesses deal with catastrophe.
A crowdfunding campaign helped Parramore chicken restaurant Nikki’s Place, which was damaged by a fire in a nearby apartment in March 2015.
It raised $5,487, and reopened. But the restaurant still struggled after the fire and closed a few months later.
For Claddagh Cottage, Vocca signed a deal last week on a new location at 2421 Curry Ford Road.
His new 3,500-squarefoot space should open this spring and be the new home for Irish music, Guinness and friends, Vocca said.
The $17,500 raised will only cover a fraction of the estimated $80,000 needed to renovate the space, Vocca said.
However, the donations showed Vocca how important his business was to customers.
“What they have created over there is something that is worth saving,” said Tom Roberts, a retired aerospace engineer who donated $100 to Claddagh. “It’s part of the international flavor of the town.”