A pair of boots with one bootstrap visible.

BootStrapMe: Tips for the serious bootstrapper.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the term, Wikipedia to the rescue: bootstrapping or booting which began as a leather strap evolved into a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, to better oneself by one’s own unaided efforts, or a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help.

Sound familiar?  If it sounds very familiar, you may be a bootstrapper.  I have bootstrapped a number of businesses so it’s a very familiar term to me.

Shawn Hessinger, who is a bootstrapper himself, is also a blogger and journalist who spent years covering business issues. Then he decided to dive off the deep end, become an entrepreneur and blog about his adventures. He shares some hard won knowledge, which might be helpful to you, if you are considering bootstrapping or are already in the thick of it.

“Once the wave of exuberance over starting a new bootstrap business passes giving way to a lot of hard work accompanied by occasional disappointment, it’s time to take some serious stock…

• Take criticism seriously. Though it’s the part that NOBODY wants to deal with, the fact is criticism can be your best friend, if you learn to read it correctly. Learn to draw inspiration from your customers’ complaints to build a better product by knowing the difference between things you can change, things you can’t and what requests are just unreasonable.

• Treat your startup like a job. You would think this would be obvious to anyone. But, if the reason you became an entrepreneur is so you wouldn’t have to do it, it’s time for some unpleasant facts. Behind all the supposed glamour that comes with owning your own business, there’s just a lot of plain old fashioned effort. Think of it this way. The only difference between work you do for your startup and what you do for an employer is the person who owns what is built by that labor in the end.

• Reinvent yourself daily. There will be things that don’t work and paths that lead to no where. The benefit of bootstrapping is that while you have no money, you also have no constraints. With no one looking over your shoulder to tell you, ‘That’s not how you do it,’ finding the right equation may be easier.

• Focus on problem solving. Most business goals can be better seen as a series of challenges to overcome or problems to be solved than as the pursuit of a single and constant goal. Break your startup into challenges and set priorities for what must be done. With each problem you solve you will find others arising. Keep the process going and you will slowly inch toward your goal…often almost without realizing.

• Never give up. Never surrender. … There are days you will feel like throwing in the towel. Remember, very few things are an immediate success. Persistence is key in the end.”

To read this entire post or more of Shawn’s blogging, go to BootStrapMe: Tips for the serious bootstrapper.

You may also want to consider these suggestions by

Esther Dyson,  who gave some advice to Bambi Francisco CEO, co-founder , Vator TV, Inc. (Owner) in Esther Dyson: Feign smarts by listening more

Dyson is “widely regarded as an Internet/high-tech luminary, thought leader, and respectable investor, having put money in some of the hottest startups, such as Flickr and del.icio.us (both part of Yahoo), and more recently 23andMe, which is backed by Google.

In this “Lessons learned” segment, Esther offers her advice to entrepreneurs and lessons learned to investors.

Her first is to listen. “Whatever the context, people will think you’re smarter,” she said.

The second is to be focused and not be distracted. “More companies die of indigestion,” she said. “Pick one opportunity and do it well, rather than do five or six things badly… opportunities will always be there.”

The third one is “always make new mistakes.”

Hopefully, we can all focus in, listen to Dyson, and try to only make new mistakes

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Book cover via Amazon

5 Ways To Thrive During Tough Times
Having been in business through many cycles and a number of recessions, I’ve learned several things. What springs to mind, in these tough times, is business is cyclical: just when you think that the good times will keep on rolling forever, the market starts a free fall and the economy heads over the cliff.  After you’ve tightened your belt, righted your ship, are managing to survive and think the storm clouds will never roll away, suddenly they do, and you’re in the money again.  The trick is to survive…. to persist and keep on doing whatever it is you do, as well as you can, good times and bad.

The other thing I’ve learned is that in every recession there is always an opportunity for someone, you just have to find it.  When companies don’t book five star hotels, budget hotels thrive.  When high end store sales wilt, thrift stores flourish.

So, you might ask, how do you stay positive and be proactive, seek out and take advantage of whatever opportunities emerge?  I was impressed with the advice offered by Jon Gordon’s Blog – 5 Ways To Thrive During Tough Times:

“Study history and you’ll find that a lot of people and organizations made a name for themselves and grew their businesses during recessions and downturns. These successful people and organizations all shared similar characteristics and took similar actions to thrive while others merely tried to survive. These success stories offer a blue print we can follow to thrive during tough times. They show us what is possible if we are willing to stay positive, repel fear, and take initiative.

In this spirit, here are five characteristics and actions you can take to thrive right now.

1. Refuse to Participate in the Recession – Businesses and people that thrived during past recessions continued to go about their business as usual regardless of the market conditions. They stayed positive, worked hard and focused on taking actions to grow their business. Focus on business as usual and while others allow fear to paralyze them you will charge forward and move ahead of your competition.

2. Increase Marketing and Advertising – It may seem counterintuitive to spend more money on advertising and marketing but with so many people and organizations cutting back on these expenses this is a great opportunity to build your brand, expand your presence and gain market share. People will still be buying goods and services and they will buy from those who they trust and see in the marketplace. This is a great time to win new customers and stand out.

3. Innovate – Just as the phoenix rises from the ashes, great ideas and new business ventures are born during economic hardships. GE, Disney, and Microsoft were all born during recessions. I believe when times are tough we are more open to new ideas, new products and new ways of doing things. For example, smart political and business leaders should be working on alternative energy and green technologies that would lead to great progress and profits.

4. Become a Talent Magnet – If you are a leader or manager there is no better time to find, attract and hire the best talent. Focus on strengthening your business now and you’ll be in a great position to capitalize when the market rebounds.

5. Think Big, Take Action – Consider that both the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge were built during the Great Depression. Now is a time to think big, create your vision and take action. With more people living in fear and fewer people taking initiative the rewards and recognition will be greater for those willing to work hard and dedicate themselves to building a great business, product, service, and vision. As we know, there is no substitute for hard work and now is a time where those with a positive attitude and great work ethic will shine.”

Download these “5 Ways to Thrive During Tough Times” as a poster that you can print, display and share. (PDF document)

Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of several books including the recently released The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to deal with Negativity at Work and best seller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy

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Image via Wikipedia

Sharing entrepreneur stories is one of the best ways possible for all of us  to  both sharpen our skills and be encouraged by the experiences of others on the same journey.  Once more Scott Allen, in his entrepreneur blog, has unearthed some jewels among entrepreneur insights and guideposts in Startup Stories #2.

Taken together, the following tales might well form a path for a determined entrepreneur.

Let’s start with Denise Hall who, in My Entrepreneurial Mother Story , “tells how, at the “ripe old age of 36″, she went from “unemployed, homeless and pregnant” to a director of a consulting firm focused on performance improvement for corporations.”

“What I have learned” she says ” is that being opportunistic and bold will get you so much further ahead, and will point you in directions where you can work out the rest! …One of the main responsibilities of my life is to set sail, strive to ‘do it my way’ and, in essence, enjoy the ride!”

The important point here is to set sail.  As someone once said, there is magic in beginnings.  Don’t wait for that perfect moment or perfect opportunity.  Start from where you are with what you’ve got.  So you don’t get discouraged on the journey, it may also help to remember you can’t start from where you want to be, you have to start from where you are.

When Hall was asked: Where do you see yourself in 20 years’ time? She responded: “Swanning around the world as I please, playing grandmother, receiving bucket loads of passive income, and being healthy, wealthy and wise! “”

I want to emphasize that passive income goal.  One of my entrepreneur father’s mantras was “Always create passive income.”  That stood right along side, ” Always have a least 3 businesses ( which we might now call revenue streams) because there will never be a time when one of them isn’t doing badly.”  And “You have to be around money to make money (  ie.  you have to be engaged with a market that ( wants and ) can afford what you’re selling. Don’t go to a down and out burg that industry has by passed long ago, with a dwindling and aging population, to try to sell those hot Lamborghini sports cars or the latest and coolest tech toys.  Your odds aren’t good.)

The clear point of the passive income goal is that someday you might be too sick or too old or, for some other reason, unable to get out there and toil at least 8 hours a day, so it’s a good idea to have a way to support yourself under those circumstance.

So how do you start creating a passive income?

Working At Home To Build Passive Blog Income And Giving Up Full Time Job Pay -

A young “recovering attorney” talks about: Looking To the Future – Sacrificing Some Income Now To Build Up My Online Blog Businesses and Incubate My Other Real World Ventures

He says: I’ve come to realize that the key to building wealth and reaching financial prosperity is to build up multiple streams of alternative and passive income, apart from your primary full time employment. Otherwise, you simply run the risk of living your entire life trading hours for dollars. Passive income generation through methods such as blog income or stock market investing help to get around the finite time problem by allowing you to generate income even when you are not actively sitting and working at your office desk.” ( Ed. Ok, we get it: this is not a good time to mention the stock market.  But, long term, it offers value. Think bonds. Or think CDs or savings accounts. Think cash.)

We vote for that – building up passive income and multiple revenue streams.  Although it’s not an easy assignment and can take quite a while.  The addendum to that is that if you build a business and develop an exit strategy, you can sell your company and the money you make can be converted into your passive income

The Dragons – Tim Berry explains the metaphor, “no dragons yet.” He tells a story of a software developer working for him on a new product. When asked him how the project was going he answered:

“Well enough, no dragons yet.”  When pressed he explained:

“Well you see, it’s like when Columbus set out sailing west towards what he hoped was India. All the time he was sailing west he had his plan and his calculations and what he thought would happen, but, in the back of his mind, most people thought that he was going to drop off the earth and fall into the mouths of dragons.”

“Software development is like that. You think you’re going to reach land, but it’s possible you’ll just fall off the end of the earth, into the mouths of dragons.”

Actually, AdvancingWomen.com thinks all business is like that.

There are dragons everywhere and, if you haven’t run into one yet, you will. The trick is to be on the look out for them, to spot them early when they crack open their shell and jump out onto your desk. Stare them down and tackle them then. Wrestle them to the ground while they’re small before they grow up to be Jurassic Park sized monsters blowing fire in your face.

So in a nutshell, be bold, set sail in your business, strive for 3 or 4 passive income streams and keep fighting off those dragons while they’re hatchlings.

For more, see the following, or send us your story and we’ll share it with others. The more we share, the more we learn:

My Father, My Mentor : The Entrepreneur Seed

Start Your Own Small Business Using More Ingenuity, Less Cash

Match Your Entrepreneur Story

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