Given the landslide victory of Barack Obama’s historic election as President of the United States of America, it’s hard to remember that just a few years ago Barack Obama was a NO NAME !
Obama began the 2008 Presidential race with little to offer the traditional politico in exchange for their support. He had no money, little power and influence (he was a relatively new Senator), and an odd sounding name. All he had to offer was an IDEA…a big idea of a better America.
In many ways the launch of Obama’s Presidential campaign is similar to the launch of every entrepreneurial dream and small business. Most small business’ start the same way…little money, no name recognition…but filled with energy around an IDEA of something that is better! This article is the first in a series to examine how he did it and what we as small business owners can glean from his success to help with our success!
Lesson #1: It All Starts with Money!
The lifeblood of every start-up and small business is money…how are you going to generate revenue on a sustainable basis? In the case of campaigns…money or revenue primarily comes thru donations.
Traditionally campaigns relied on donations from corporations and other wealthy individuals. Not much attention was paid to the little guy. But in 2002 that changed when legislation was passed capping individual contributions at $2000 for primaries and $2000 for the general election.
Hillary Clinton, long considered the shoo-in candidate for the Democratic nomination, already had many of the big donors committed to her campaign. This coupled with Obama’s lack of name recognition and power, could have put the Obama campaign at a great disadvantage. But instead they figured out another way to generate revenue by reaching a never before tapped target market.
A New Target Market
It turns out that change in legislation created an opportunity for Obama to design a money making 
machine that generated the largest amount of donations in the history of elections…$639 million!
The Obama campaign reached out to disenfranchised citizens who had traditionally been ignored and began asking for their help and their donations. In past elections donors were made to feel like they had to contribute a significant amount of money to matter.
The Obama campaign shifted the paradigm and relished donor contributions of $5. And in the process, it was easy for millions of people to open their wallets and contribute $5, and then $10 and maybe $25. Almost half of Obama’s $639 million in funds raised from individuals came from small donors giving $300 or less!
Tapping into a new market was vital to the success of Obama’s campaign. Equally important was the masterful way that the Obama campaign leveraged the Internet to engage donors and volunteers. And that will be the focus of the next article in this series!
It All Starts With Money…Action Points
Following are three take away points from the Obama campaign that can help small business owners find ways to generate more revenue.
Under-Served Markets
In the fight to survive, Obama was forced into finding another target market that he could sell his ideas to. It’s Marketing 101, but are you missing a huge opportunity to serve an under-served market?
Big does not always add up to More!
Traditionally, it was the big donors who mattered and swayed elections. Not this time, as demonstrated by the over $300 million dollars raised by small donations. Do your product or service offerings provide multiple price points and ways for prospects to buy from you? Is there a paradigm that you can shift?
Is the Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
The legislation that capped individual donations was probably viewed by many as half-empty. Steeped in years and years of the way things are done, it might have been difficult to see the half-full opportunity. The combination of need to find a different way helped the Obama team to see the half-full opportunity. What are you looking at from a half-empty filter? Challenge yourself to find the half-full opportunity!
No Small Change
No Small Change is the title of a fantastic infographic of what we have just been talking about. Created by the XPlane company, it depicts Obama’s reinvention of campaign funding. It’s the picture you see associated with this post. To download your own copy visit XPlane.
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