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How to Bootstrap Your Way Past Recession
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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.
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How to Start Small but Successful Ecommerce Shop
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Trying to push my way to make money online through setting up ecommerce shop, I’ve made mistakes a while ago, and I want to make sure you are not doing the same mistakes I did.
The number one mistake I did is NOT to bootstrap.
At that time, I thought that if I want to start an ecommerce shop, I have to think big and ready to splash tens of thousands of dollar. While this might be true to some, this definitely a WRONG decision for me.
You see, I denied the fact that starting an ecommerce shop doesn’t only require passion - it requires knowledge.
I read ebooks and other sources about starting an ecommerce shop - dropshipping, selling at eBay, etc. All they talk about is on incorporating a secure shopping cart, a privacy protection, and doing advertising (through Google AdWord and other methods).
While they are useful, not a single information I read is about how to start small and smart, unfortunately.
I learned the hard way - I learned that bootstrapping is key in starting a successful ecommerce shop.
All facets of ecommerce - ecommerce hosting, back-office management, website management, and marketing need to be bootstrapped.
How to start small but successful ecommerce shop
Unless you have all the funding to hire a team of techie and marketer, while securing a prominent funding source, I highly recommend you to start on your own by bootstrapping your startup phase.
Remember, you don’t want revenue - you want profit. You can make bigger profit from lower revenue if you start yourself small and ‘light’.
Here’s a tip or two on bootstrapping your ecommerce startup from my own experience:
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Brochures for Guerrilla Marketing
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Guerrilla marketing is basically bootstrapping marketing activities to achieve maximum impact.
The use of brochures in guerrilla marketing for retails is common, and as long as people still walk on sidewalks, brochure marketing will always be important to bootstrap your marketing.
What should be included in the brochure?
Obviously, you may want to have your contact info in it - don’t forget to put a simple map, too.
You also want to get your message across in bigger font and in lesser word counts. Passer-bys have limited attention span, and might only look at your brochure for 1 or 2 seconds and then throw it away. Be attention grabbing in less wording.
For example - “For limited time only - you can have a 20% discount on selected items in our store” can be written, in big and bold, “20% OFF TODAY - ACT NOW”
Colour or Black-and-White?
Colour or black-and-white printing? Simple question, supposedly simple answer, but tricky to decide.
To command quality, colour brochure printing should be your choice over the B/W counterpart. However, B/W brochure printing is definitely cheaper.
In my opinion, whenever your budget allows, choose colour brochure printing.
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How to be a Good Bootstrapper-Investor
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...If somebody told you that you need a lot of money to enter the business and investment game, they’re wrong.
You and I can be an investor, that also is a bootstrapper. I called it Bootstrapper-Investor
You can invest in business, real estate, paper asset, and other investment vehicles with limited resources.
How to be a proper bootstrapper-investor
Here’s a tip or two on how to be a good bootstrapper-investor:
Do online business - enter make money online market
Today is a good time to make money online - the market is there and the demand is very much higher than supply, in my opinion.
You can learn about this from the real life make money online expert, such as Yaro Starak, John Chow, and Darren Rowse. Please notice, that all that I mentioned is bloggers.
Why? Because the bloggers I mentioned are business owner, and they are more accessible than any online business owners - thanks to the nature of the blogosphere.
Find info on ‘cheap’ real estates
Despite today’s recession, real estate is pretty much still accessible. The idea of real estate is by investing 20 to 30 per cent of the property price tag - some even offer no down payment - you can own the property.
Just make sure you don’t assume that the property will go up in value - most of the time, yes. But today, not really. Invest properties for cash flow. Or, at least on the future potential of the properties.
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