BEG, steal or borrow. That's how it used to be. 

Family, friends, credit cards, savings, loans, muggings; the traditional ways to fund a new venture. Or, if you used your loaf and had the patience, produce a business plan as thick as a brick to pitch at investors, high street banks and venture capital firms. Pain in the arse, eh?

This campaign is about avoiding the rigmarole and red tape of traditional investment

However, since the emergence of Crowdfunding websites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter in 2009, more and more entrepreneurs are turning to thousands, millions even, of lovely, little folk for a small amount of money to fund their project as opposed to a handful of hard-bitten bastards with briefcases and black hearts.

Once the domain of creative and techie types who desired to build a $10,000 50ft robot snake (this actually happened) or a short film about the 'romance between a muffin and a banana in the land of pickles' (unbelievably so did this), crowdfunding has started to make a big impact on the restaurant industry.

The Clove Club - a restaurant and bar in Shoredtich that went on to Michelin starred glory in 2014 - was partly funded by a staggering £250k via Crowdcube. Closer to home, chef Gary Usher's Sticky Walnut bistro in Cheshire - recently named AA Restaurant of the Year - raised just over £100k from 891 backers in November 2014 to launch their second operation, Burnt Truffle, later this year.

Next to take a punt on crowdfunding is Manchester and Birmingham's foremost vegetarian restaurant, 1847.

Launched on Mosley Street (opposite the Manchester Art Gallery) in 2011, 1847 and its owner, Damien Davenport, are flying following a glowing review by The Guardian's Jay Rayner and scooping the Cook Vegetarian magazine's 'Best Vegetarian Restaurant Outside of London 2014'.

Over the next six weeks, Davenport hopes to raise £60,000 via Kickstarter to launch a third operation in Liverpool, establish a new cookery school and launch 1847 Pantry, a range of vegetarian takeaway meals.

So far they've raised over £4,000 in three days,

"We've been trading successfully for five years and have manged to grow organically to two sites in Manchester and Birmingham" Davenport tells me, "but we've still found it difficult to secure traditional bank lending.

"We were offered investment last year but they wanted to take half of the business," Davenport continues. "We've seen what other restaurants like Sticky Walnut can do with crowdfunding and we think it's achievable for 1847."

.1847 Kickstarter launch party

However, crowdfunding is by no means a certainty; less than 40% of approved Kickstarter campaigns achieve their targets, while 20% don't even pass the first approval stage. Which means, in reality, only a third of all campaigns are successful.

Regardless, Davenport is confident. "I think being a vegetarian restaurant, there's already a strong community out there," he says "We've looked at the competition and we're sure that a city as big as Liverpool would benefit from an 1847."

We've identified potential sites, we're ready to go, we just need our community to back us."

Still, being a restaurant based out of Manchester, the golden question is why Manchester folk should fund a new restaurant in Liverpool?

"The new Liverpool restaurant is only a third of what we want to do," says Davenport. "A good proportion of the money will be spent in Manchester on our cookery school, pantry and training.

"Plus Liverpool is only half an hour from Manchester, we're sure all our customers in the North West would want to try the new site."

.Owner Damien Davenport addresses the crowd at the Kickstarter launch party

A bonus for entrepreneurs like Davenport are that, unlike traditional financing, money collected via Kickstarter require no financial payback, no interest and no collateral.

But for a business that has seen bookings increase 87% in the last year, why can't the business fund its own expansion?

"Yes there's been an increase in turnover," says Davenport, "but that also means an increase in expenditure.

"The truth is that if our crowdfunding was unsuccessful we'd still eventually open in Liverpool - but how much longer down the line? A few years perhaps."

"This campaign is about avoiding the rigmarole and red tape of traditional investment, speaking directly to our community and potential community and asking for their help to bring this forward.

"After all, it's those people that we're feeding everyday, not the bloke behind the desk with the chequebook."

You can donate to the 1847 Kickstarter campaign here.