In the past, starting a business would require months of trawling the investor circuits and pitching over and over again until your voice was hoarse from blowing your own trumpet.

Now though, thanks to the democratising power of the internet, there’s another way of raising funds for your start-up and it involves reaching out directly to your future customer base. Why put all your energies into trying to persuade an investor that there’s a market for your product or services, when you can reach out to the market itself and (literally) get their buy-in from the start?

With crowdfunding, you tell your story and explain why you’re looking for funds and what you’re offering in return. To help you reach your target, people from your network and beyond can back your project by selecting from a range of options with different incentives offered for each. These might be pre-orders of your product at a reduced rate, invitations to a VIP launch event, or even an intimate dinner-for-two with the founder!

The benefits are not just financial. Executed well, the crowdfunding campaign can create a buzz around your project and start building a community before you’ve even launched.

So now there’s no excuse not to launch that business you’ve always dreamed of. But how to make sure your crowdfunding campaign is a success? Here are our top tips:

1. Make sure you tell an engaging story. Campaigns using a video are much more likely to be successful than those that don’t (50% as opposed to 30% according to Kickstarter)
2. Budget carefully and be clear what you’ll be spending the money on, with tangible milestones for different levels of funding.
3. Be creative with the incentives you offer with a variety of options to appeal to potential backers with different interests in your project and varying levels of engagement. This campaign for a new HUB in Oakland (the most successful crowdfunding campaign ever for a coworking space) gives a long list of options, from having a photo on their community wall to getting life-time membership of the space once it opens.
4. Choose the right platform. There are many out there and they are becoming ever more niche. For example, Buzzbnk specialises in social enterprises, while Petridish exclusively funds scientific research.
5. Start the snowball effect by getting your close supporters, family and friends to sign up and invest before pushing out to your wider network. Then give it a big marketing push through all your channels and make sure to keep the updates coming to sustain interest.

Nobody’s going to claim that crowdfunding is an easy ride. It requires ingenuity, persistence and highly-developed insight into your unique offering… but if you get it right, the rewards are great and you’ll have given your start-up momentum from the get-go.

If you’re a freelancer yourself, you should check out our upcoming event on the UK’s burgeoning freelance rights movement, featuring speakers from the PCG Freelancers’ Association, Kindred HQ and Freerange Humans – not to mention plenty of space to talk about your own challenges and experiences.

Join us at 6:30pm on Wednesday May 29 at Hub Islington (5 Torrens St, EC1V 1NQ). Tickets are free but spaces are filling fast, so make sure you sign up to reserve yours.

So what do an M&S bra, Whitehall, a Pink Floyd album and our cleaners have to do with the challenge? Well, they’re all going carbon neutral!

Since we’re in the midst of settling our own sustainability framework we’re delighted that our long-term supplier Ultimately Eco is striding out ahead of the game by cleaning up their carbon.  Following the classic avoid> reduce> replace> then offset impact minimisation process, Ultimately Eco have gone the final mile to neutralise their remaining carbon.

Founded as an environmentally friendly and ethical company, Ultimately Eco is committed to a sustainable future.  We were touched to read in their declaration that their motivation springs from a heartfelt concern for their clients’ (us) and cleaners’ health!

As is often said, it takes a crisis to bring about real transformational change so we’re looking forward to joining Ultimately Eco’s carbon purge and invite our other suppliers to join the clean-up!

Great news: The Hub community is expanding quickly. So fast in fact, that we had to update our world map at Hub Islington. Hubs in Singapore, Bari, Copenhagen, Belo Horizonte, Bogota, Curitiba, Tampere and Los Angeles have been added to our wall. But it doesn’t stop there! There are lots of teams in the process of creating Hubs all around the world including Salt Lake City, Recife, Dubai and more!

Starting off with our very own Hub Islington in 2005, the Hub community has gained foot all over the world. Currently there are 37 Hubs open but that number may change very soon. Thanks to all of the Hubbers spreading the word and taking initiative to build new Hubs everywhere!

I’m Angela Zollinger from Zurich and I’m doing a mini internship for two weeks at Hub Islington. My goal is to pick up some work experience while I’m still in High School and to brush up my English. The Hub was introduced to me by my father, Peter Zollinger, who works in the field of sustainability as Head of Impact Research at Globalance Bank. I’d like to share the story of this special Bank with you.

Globalance Bank is an owner-run Swiss private bank that was founded in 2011 by a group of entrepreneurs that have 20 – 25 years experience in the financial markets and sustainable investing.  The Globalance founders guide investors to make profit while maintaining a positive footprint in the real world.  The unique Portfolio Footprint, that was developed by Globalance founders, shows the investors very clearly what impact their investments have on the earth.

A fresh start, like founding the Globalance bank, is (in my opinion) the right answer to the banking crisis. Globalance has no legacy problem, is well capitalized and can devote all its energy into creating a positive future.

As Globalance shares their visions with the Hub they collaborate every now and then with the Hub Zurich.

Read more about the young ethical bank on their website or come and talk to me in the HUB!

But what is this Hootsuite? (I hear you say)

Well, if you’ve ever tried managing a Twitter feed and a Facebook page for your business, not to mention your LinkedIn and Google+ accounts – you’ll know that it can sap a lot of your valuable time. But as an entrepreneur or freelancer, you probably can’t afford to let you social media marketing slip either.

This is where platforms like Hootsuite come in, allowing you to manage campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. You can do all sorts of clever things on there, including scheduling tweets to come out at different times of the week, to measuring the reach of your campaign. You can also, as we’ve done here at the HUB, organise a team of collaborators to the various social media accounts so that multiple people can tweet or post as your Facebook page.

If you’re a HUB member and want to find out more or take up Hootsuite on their offer of a free Pro account (which comes with some extra features to the free version) get in touch with UK Community Manager, Shain Shapiro (who just so happens to be a HUB Islington member!) via his HUBNet profile.

During the week of the first ever HUB Insights event, Eleanor Whitley, from HUB King’s Cross was interviewed by El Mundo to show the current situation of co-working. “We all share an eagerness to innovate and change things, and know we’re not sure of good ideas. What we were lacking before was a place to meet, where we could connect and collaborate”. But this is no longer the case. In cities around the world from London, Madrid, Melbourne, Bogotá or Johannesburg, social entrepreneurs now have a place to feel at home, develop projects and ideas and collaborate.

“We are a global network and, at the same time, both a physical and mental space [...] It is very important that the space is “unfinished”, that it is flexible and adapts to the changing needs of the members”, El Mundo quotes Eleanor. “I sincerely believe that we are creating a new way of working in a time of crisis. Most of our members are freelance, but big companies have started to “send” workers to the HUB. They are realizing that collaboration, innovation and social dimension are basic elements nowadays”. And therefore, the HUB is the place to be.

Each year, the founders and leaders of HUBs all over the globe come together to engage in a discussion about the challenges, achievements, global vision and strategy of the network at the annual HUB Association Strategy Gathering.

This year’s Gathering culminated in a stimulating event on 17 April, hosted by the London HUBs – the first ever and much-anticipated HUB Insights! Founders and makers, members, partners and those looking to be inspired gathered at this unique one-day event to share stories of change and innovation.

Speakers included stars from the social enterprise sector such as Nikolaus Hutter (Toniic Europe), Paula Goldman (Omidyar Network), Caroline Mason (Big Society Capital) and Nigel Kershaw (The Big Issue). Attendees and speakers were encouraged to engage in a dialogue about the challenges of scaling up social impact in the midst of such economic hardship.

Indy Johar, co-founder of HUB Westminster, was joined by Max Oliva (co-founder of HUB Madrid), Louise Pulford (SIX), Filipe Santos (INSEAD) and Marc Ventresca (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), and led the first panel discussion on how to nurture system builders and changemakers today.

The panelists addressed questions surrounding new forms of education, driven by the exponential growth in the accessibility of information (like Wikipedia and Khan Academy) and peer-to-peer systems (like Trade School London). The importance of striking a balance between curating knowledge and teaching knowledge was discussed by the first three panelists, and later put into practice by Marc Ventresca. The consensus was that in the future education will be more iterative and incorporate new forms of pedagogy, particularly through practical action and learning networks (like the HUB!)

The second panel was led by Joost Beunderman, director of HUB Islington, and addressed the topic of building Civic movements and organising for impact in the 21^st century. Joost was joined by Mark Cheng (Ashoka UK), Christian Bausch (Sandbox), Nicolò Wojewoda (350.org), and Tim Dixon (Purpose), all of whom shared their own insights and experiences.

“Creating genuine values – going beyond manifestos – and participating in value systems is crucial”, said Chris Bausch. The panelists agreed that, as social entrepreneurs, we need to start with the basics by identifying “why”, rather than “what”, we do.

HUB Insights brought together like-minded individuals to tackle the challenges of being part of the innovation and change revolution. For me, the atmosphere in the room was best summarized in Nigel Kershaw’s closing keynote, when he said: ““I want to change the world” is often met with cynicism by those around us. There is no such cynicism in this room!” A time of crisis is the best time for transformational change.

Written by Kristy Petkova, at the HUB Islington focusing on youth related impact. @k_petkova

From April HMRC are introducing a new regime for the receipt and processing of payroll information called Real Time Information (or RTI). RTI is being introduced to make sure the payroll and tax information held on every employee of every company in the nation is as up-to-date as possible.

Instead of submitting tax forms at the end of every year, employers will be required to send HMRC payroll information on or before every single payday, meaning the figures held by HMRC are always as up-to-date as possible.

It may sound simple, but RTI has been described as the biggest shakeup to the payroll sector since the introduction of PAYE. The stakes are high, too – any company not meeting their RTI requirements will face monthly fines from HMRC!

RTI is such a shift that many payroll packages that are now essentially useless are being scrapped (such as Sage’s TAS Payroll), to be replaced by packages rebuilt from the ground up to support the new rules.

If you and your business have not begun to prepare for RTI, the time is now! Those using larger accountancy packages should be receiving updates to their software that makes them RTI-compliant, while those using online accountancy packages should see the RTI updates come into effect seamlessly.

If you have any questions about these changes, HUB member Andy Paterson from Crunch Accounting is happy to talk them through with you. Give him a call on 0844 500 8000 or email: andy.paterson@crunch.co.uk

A former lawyer, Sara founded the Freelancers Union in 2003. In that time, she has built a movement of more than 200,000 independent workers, and been instrumental in sparking an international conversation about freelancers and the future of work.

Sara believes that the shift from a workforce of employees to independent contractors is “the industrial revolution of our era,” and she is deeply committed to raising the profile of freelancers in our economy, and to helping more people build meaningful, independent, connected working lives.

Think Sara deserves to be in the final TIME 100? Vote for her here, and click here to learn more about the US Freelancers Union, or here to learn about its UK equivalent, the PCG.