One of the most common
excuses
I hear for not building a business
is lack of money.
Every business I have ever started
has been bootstrapped.
I started them
with less than $500
of my own money.
One of the ‘tricks’
to bootstrapping a business
is to keep the initial
product/service offering simple
and to reduce the cost
of delivering it as much as possible.
I partnered with a publisher
for my first Romance Novels.
They paid for the big costs
of editing, formatting, covers
in exchange for a (hefty) share
of the income.
I used MY portion of that income
to eventually pay for those costs
when I had the cash flow
and the guts
to go Indie.
Eileen Fisher,
Fashion Designer
and Business Builder,
shares
“I was living in a loft
in Tribeca at the time
and had lots of artist friends.
One was a jewelry maker
who suggested
I take over his booth
at a trade show
where buyers came
to buy clothes for their stores.
I had three weeks
to produce my line,
$350 in the bank,
and no idea how to make a pattern.
Another friend knew
someone who volunteered
to make the samples.
The first line was
a pair of flood pants
based on ones I’d seen in Japan,
a simple top
with a three-quarter sleeve,
a V-neck vest,
and a sleeveless shell.
Everything was made
in linen cotton and
could be mixed and matched.
Eight stores made small orders
totaling $3,000,
and several buyers even
sat down with me and said,
“We like your shapes,
but try a different fabric,”
or
“Your colors are not quite
in sync with what’s in fashion now.”
I listened,
made adjustments,
and for my second show,
I built off the first line
by adding a simple skirt,
a straight dress,
and a drop-waist dress,
all in a French terry.
People stood in line.”
You don’t need
vast amounts of money
to start a business.
Bootstrap your dream.