Every single business I’ve created was started with next to no money. There is a term called “bootstrapping” a business, which means starting or creating without external money or resources. To this day I’ve never taken money or had outside investment.
We’re inundated with startup culture stories of raising money. I always scratch my head when I hear people or businesses crow about how much money they’ve raised. They don’t talk about how much money they’ve MADE. I just don’t get it, and I guess that world just isn’t for me.
I mean, I get it, some businesses need as much money as possible to grow as quick as possible since their competition is doing the same thing and it’s a land grab. There’s also a reason why most of these businesses burn out and fail when the money stops coming in.
So, I acknowledge that world exists, but there’s a whole other world. I know it because I’ve lived it.
I guess I was also scarred by my earliest business experiences being part of a video game chain that fell apart when the money didn’t come in. Everything I’ve done since has basically been super conservative in planning and not having to answer to outside people or investors.
When I first started importing vinyl records from the UK to resell, I had to manage money in to money out. I learned quick to keep a lean inventory. Anything I didn’t sell was dead money to me. Every unsold records needed the profit from 4 other records to make up for it. It was better to stay lean and profitable.
When promoting shows, I started small, what I could afford. Each event was bigger, as I learned, and reinvested my own money. Later, when the scene morphed, I was able to adapt to the new realities, instead of disappear like most of my contemporaries.
When Stealth Seminar was created, we used less than $1000 of off-the-shelf products, and then our own sweat equity to make it happen.
Sleeping on floors, eating cans of soup, building things yourself, not having to answer to outside money people. That’s a proven path of success.
The types of small businesses I want to work with these days follow my same philosophy. Just people trying to make something happen. Lacing up their own bootstraps. It can be done.
I totally agree with this philosophy, and it worked with me when I was employed. It enhance self discipline and improve the culture of protecting every single coin you have.
On the other side is hard to start if you have nothing at all so you need to engage in any legal activity that will help you to earn a dime.
Hi Frednand, welcome to the blog. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I know my way of doing things isn’t for everyone, but if there’s something I’d like to pass on it’s that there is more than one way to do something or accomplish something. I think that’s important for people to know.