Earlier this year UK equity crowdfunding pioneer Crowdcube proudly announced that JustPark, a company pitching for investment through its platform, had raised a record breaking £3.7m. It was one the many success stories that have helped place crowdfunding squarely on the collective radar screen of startups and early stage companies. In deal terms, crowdfunding in Britain was worth about £84m in 2014 with further growth to the tune of 40% expected in the current year, according to UK innovation agency NESTA. Meanwhile across the rest of Europe the market is worth around £82m.

Inevitably we tend to hear most about the success stories – the companies that achieve or exceed their funding targets in a matter of days or weeks – but not every hopeful business gets what it requires from the crowd. As with rewards based crowdfunding, there are campaigns that begin with high expactations and confident pitches and then falter in the face of investor indifference. And to be frank, investors have a lot to choose from in terms of both the growing numbers of companies pitching for funds and the available platforms. It’s not surprising that some businesses fall by the wayside.

So how does a business maximize its chances of success?