Bootstrapping - Starting Below the Bottom In Business

Posted by Sara

May 8, 2008

What is bootstrapping? It is starting a business on less than a shoestring. It is starting a business with nothing; no capital, no loan, no grant, and no borrowing money from daddy.

I started my first business over 20 years ago on less than $100.00. It failed. I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and I never gave up. As the culture has grown and technology has increased turning this big world into a smaller one, it is now easier to start a business on $100.00 and make it big.

Let’s face the reality of business. You are reading this blog post because you want to start your own business and are looking for all the free information you can get on the subject. You have tried those “get rich” schemes and have found that the only one making money is the guy you paid for the “Get Rich Plan”. The real truth? Building a business and making a lot of money from nothing takes time and hard work.

There are a lot of businesses you can start with little money. Before you begin exploring what those businesses are you need to first look at the world from a hard business view point. The United States is now in a Post-Industrial era, we have long passed the industrial era of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. This means the types of businesses which find success are businesses which fit well into the post-industrial society.

Service Business: Service businesses will always be a big business in this world. There is always someone willing to pay for a service; maid, yard, cleaning, repair, and so forth… Service businesses are a niche business which there is always new ideas. Just look at the service business of cleaning up crime scenes. Yes it is a nasty business, but they make a lot. That is what a service business is about, doing a dirty nasty job someone doesn’t want to do. Just cleaning their own house is a dirty job some people is willing to pay a lot to avoid.

Retail Business: Let’s face it, Wal-Mart doesn’t carry everything a person wants or needs. Niche retail businesses will always be around and with the growing number of products being put on the market each year it isn’t about to go away. Now you are thinking, “It takes money to buy inventory!” Yes, that is right. Most wholesale businesses have a minimum order of just $100.00 and some will drop-ship. Once you have your inventory all it takes is a place to sell it. Right now there are many online auction sites which will allow anyone to sell products online to a world market.

The fact is that if you really have the desire to own a business you can do it. My second business was a retail business. I started it on $200.00 which I put on a credit card. Yes, it was a bad thing to do, but all the money I made went to pay the credit card off first, then it went back into the business.

Business Talk