According to the survey by the Small Business Administration, a total of 30.2 million small businesses existed in the United States in the year 2022.
Starting a business can be a daunting task, especially when building from scratch. But a majority of these millions of companies start with less than a half a million dollars, yet they do progress to become trailblazers worth millions or billions of dollars.
Funding is a constant concern for any business founder. Often, the source of capital to start and sustain a business raises pertinent fears. But did you know that bootstrap funding can be a perfect option when financing your business?
Are you wondering what bootstrap funding is all about? Well, these seven fantastic guidelines on bootstrapping a startup are all you need to venture out with confidence.
What Is Bootstrap Funding?
Businesses need funding to survive beyond the incubation stage. But even when you successfully go past the first five years of operations, you continuously need to work at plowing back profits to keep the business going.
Bootstrap funding refers to the ability to finance your business independently by utilizing your current earnings and assets.
Entrepreneurs and founders who succeed in bootstrap funding find a way of surviving past the challenge of business financing by injecting operating capital through self-initiative. Bootstrapping, therefore, involves the use of internal resources and funding mechanisms to keep the business afloat.
When you embrace bootstrapping as an alternative source of managing your business, you eliminate the complexities of having to live up to stakeholder's expectations and demands.
So, how can you go about the process of bootstrap funding?
Top 7 General Guidelines For Bootstrap Funding
1. Do Your Homework
One of the main concerns you have when starting is whether you are doing the right thing. Research offers you a level of confidence that you need to venture out into the business. Understanding the market, the funding needs, and your competitors can help you better determine whether you still want to bootstrap your business.
Most of the business options can be highly capital-intensive. You may need to understand your revenue sources in such cases vis-à-vis what it takes to sustain such a business before taking the risk. Most companies that exist on bootstrap funding fail due to the inability to conduct a background assessment before launching.
2. Let Your Passion Lead The Way
If you decide to venture into a business, let it be because you have a better understanding of the sector or you have unwavering passion.
Bootstrapping means that you may need to work with somewhat limited resources for the better part of the startup process. As such, you need passion to carry you through seasons when the results will not be as encouraging.
It would be best if you also focused on a domain you have better insights on, to minimize the risk of costly blunders.
The process of decision making when cash crunched should be keen enough to eliminate any potential of financial miscalculations. For this reason, there's a need to stick to what you know when bootstrapping a startup.
3. How About Team Members Who Can Work For Equity?
Managing a business is among the most challenging roles founders take up. Consequently, it’s also not possible to maintain such companies without additional team members. Sadly, most team members expect monetary compensation for their contribution within the business.
Your options when it comes to managing and running the business are well cut out. You can only succeed if you’re able to bring onboard team members who commit their time and expertise in exchange for equity in the company. This option ensures that you only get to incur costs that are observably impossible to eliminate.
4. Consider Rewards As A Source Of Crowdfunding
When it comes to funding, you can always gamble with options. Crowdfunding allows you the possibility of sourcing for donors. The reason you need donors as opposed to investors is that the former is not keen on returns.
You can consider rewards as a means of showing gratitude for the financial and time –resource input into the business. Such individuals may come in as volunteers to help you push products through marketing. However, the expectation shouldn’t be on monetary compensation.
5. Establish Your Revenue Streams For Bootstrap Funding
No matter how much you try to cut on costs, trying to bootstrap; your business still requires financing to run. It would help if you considered the various options available at your disposal before committing.
For most people, monthly income from a day job or a side hustle often becomes the stand by operating capital. You may also consider savings from other different sources as feasible options to bootstrap funding. But when such options are unavailable, you may consider personal loans as viable alternatives.
Most of the businesses that succeed in bootstrap funding also consider investing in other portfolio offerings, which bring in residual income.
You need to ensure that by expanding such a portfolio offering, you don't end up having to spend more investment in human and monetary capital. Reselling SIP trunks is among such options that will help you inject money into your primary business.
6. Work On A Budget
You will gain a lot by merely operating on a bootstrapped business budget. The truth is that your business may have a wide range of needs and wants. However, without a budget, the possibility of failure is high because you will tend to use the little you have on emotional-based financial decisions. Joe Flanagan, Senior Career Advisor at MintResume deals with a variety of candidates who venture into running their own bootstrapped startup. He recommends they create a minimum viable product (MVP). This keeps costs low while also testing the waters to find out if what you have to offer is what customers want.
Ensure that you cut on costs as much as possible by having a list of priorities. Then work at making certain that your business operates on the most minimal reasonable expenses.
7. Outsource When Needed
It beats business sense for you to have a permanent employee position where you pay a monthly salary if you can outsource such services whenever necessary. Most startups make such a mistake where most of the full-time employees are not useful on a routine basis.
If there’s an input needed within the business but can be outsourced, you best consider such an option. This saves you direct costs and other hidden expenses associated with managing labor.
You Don’t Have To Break The Bank To Sustain Your Business
Business owners find it challenging to survive past the startup period due to financial limitations. However, their problem is often the failure to look within and establish measures that can help sustain a venture without external funding. As such, understanding how to go about the utilization of bootstrap funding is critical. With the available internal bootstrap funding options and the incorporation of these critical guidelines, your business is set for growth.
Learn More Beyond Bootstrapping Your Business
Was this article on bootstrap funding useful to you? Discover more about bootstrapping your business on the Startups and Finance sections of our site!