ESYB2 070 - Bootstrapping Your Business
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[00:00:00] Now let's discuss bootstrapping your business. First of all, what is that? It's the process of building your business without funding. It's actually what I did. And it's actually most entrepreneurs do, even though most entrepreneurs at one point or another, including myself asked, how can I raise money?

Because in the beginning, it's really hard. It is really hard to start a business without money. Everyone struggles and has stress and there's a mental question like how to raise money and we're going to talk about a lot of different fundraising options, but for most of us, bootstrapping is applicable to, if not our entire business, to large parts of our business.

Because we can't afford everything anyway, so a lot of times we'll have to figure out how to do without money or very limited money. So, one thing that you really never want to do, never ever, is wait for money to get started. Because you're gonna wait a week, a month, a year, your whole life. Sometimes [00:01:00] money never comes, I see a lot of people, they're like, Oh, I applied for a grant, I'm just waiting to hear back.

Sometimes it takes six months. Are you crazy? It just, how can you afford to wait that long? If it's truly your passion and your idea, you gotta go after it. You can't wait that long. So, you can apply, but you gotta do something on your own. So there's a really famous quote that I really love from Theodore Roosevelt.

Wherever you are, do what you can with what you have. And you have to apply that philosophy to your business. Yes, you can apply for money, for fundraising. You can pursue it in many different ways, sure. But don't forget and neglect to grow your business. So you must do something every day to grow your business.

Every day or at least most days. And if you think, well, there's just a huge barrier, I really need funds. Well then, you know, while you're waiting for the money to come in, while the fundraising methods are in process, you can simplify your idea and start in a simpler way. You [00:02:00] can learn whatever skills you need instead of hiring or outsourcing.

For example, like I learned how to build my mobile apps when I was building them. Most entrepreneurs, they don't want to learn. Well, yeah, of course, then you'll need money. But you know, sometimes you have imperfect options. The fundraising is not perfect. Learning is not perfect, but you gotta at least try, try, try, don't sit and wait.

That's the cardinal sin of starting a business. It's sitting and waiting for money. And keep in mind that the fundraising process in most cases actually distracts from your business. Whereas starting even in a simple way, helps you build your business. For example, if I go out and I pitch an investor and I talk to an investor, that's a waste.

That's the day that I'm not focusing on actually growing my business. But if I actually focus on trying to get revenue and trying to grow my product and trying to launch my product or do something for the actual business while bootstrapping, then I'm actually focusing on the business itself and helping it grow.

And investors, they like [00:03:00] go getters. If they see you're not doing anything, just waiting for money, That's a really red big red flag for them. They don't like people like that. They like to what's called connect the dots. They talk to you this month, you're planning. They talk to you next month, you're started.

They talk to you two months later, Oh, you've got some clients. Now they like progress. See they're connecting the dots. If you're flat, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. They know you're just gonna take their money, the money's gonna run out, and you're gonna do nothing. So, they like progress, so be resourceful, problem solve.

If you feel like there's nothing you can do, change up the situation, there's something you can do. I had a client who was a doctor, he couldn't afford the lease to get a secretary and a doctor's office, so he wasn't starting with his own practice, and I told him, look, there's so many doctors who co share the space, [00:04:00] and they're just there one day a week or two days a week while they're getting their practice up and running, then they get more clients three days a week.

So with very minimal money, they're able to get started while that client was just waiting around, right? There's a contrast. So whenever you think you can't, you know what? You can. Wherever you are, do what you can with what you have, but do not sit around.

