It’s time for entrepreneurs to do what they are supposedly good at – bootstrapping.

I don’t know how about you, but I view business owners can only call themselves entrepreneurs if, and only if, their main focus in business is cost-cutting – one major element of bootstrapping.

The successful entrepreneurs I know are guarding their money like a maximum-security prison guarding prisoners – Money coming in is encouraged, and money coming out is inspected many times with security measures.

Those entrepreneurs are bootstrappers – In my opinion, only a few entrepreneurs start their career in the business world NOT as bootstrappers.

Bootsrapping tips

I learn from my fellow entrepreneurs on how to bootstrap your way to thrive in today’s recession – From what I learn, there are several similarities in bootstrapping methods among them; To name a few:

• They purchase everything on business credit cards – this way, they reap point rewards that can be redeemed with various rewards, such as traveling the world – this is effective as long as they pay their bills on due date to avoid late fees or other fees incurred.
• They do balance transfer – they ‘reshuffle’ their business credit cards, and transfer the balance – or aggregate some, to the most attractive credit card issuers offers possible.
• They always think, “Substitute, substitute, substitute” – i.e. if printing their own business card is cheaper, they’ll do it for sure.
• Their motto, “Save the money, save the world” – free advertisements, free classifieds, consignment, dropshipping, viral marketing, etc. are their keywords.
• They choose NOT to hire employees, if they feel hiring ones will not add to their business’ revenue significantly.
• They outsource – avoiding the headache and costs of having their own employees, they outsource and sub-contract non-critical business operations to a third party.
• They use the recession as their marketing tool. i.e. one of my colleagues use emotional or paranoia marketing to get customers in without costing a lot to attract them – one pitch example: “Don’t invest in today’s lackluster stock market that has bankrupted investors – invest in gold with us”

Focus on balance transfer

With today’s eminent threat on everything that incurs interest – credit cards, mortgages, business loans, etc. – doing a balance transfer for your business credit cards is, in my opinion, a must do.

I encourage you to consult your financial advisors or your trusted credit card issues about the possibility to do balance transfer.

Better yet, there are many websites on the Net offering advices and recommendations on balance transfer and which credit card issuers offer the best financing solutions.

One, single, best tip of all

Related to those I outlined above, I have one, single, best tip of all tips :)

Keep small, dream big

Keeping your business team smallish has its own perks: More responsive to changes, cost effective in running your business, and minimal bad-corporate-culture-thing.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I know and befriend with run a 2 or 3-person company that rakes in six figures in US dollars, annually.

One last tip – never run your business on your own, if you are really serious about getting your business going through the recession – you need every help available.

Ivan Widjaya
Bootstrapping
Image by colros.

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