What I would like to talk to you about is bootstrapping. This is something that I have experience with, that’s basically a kind of self financing. The goal here is to use your own money, or you ask others for a loan, but you keep the full control over the company and your company’s not mortgaged. So, it’s a little bit more risk aversive way of looking for investment. And basically the goal is to manage the cash flow while you are internally generating money in order to create and maintain the business, until then, when it kicks off.
To understand the principles of bootstrapping. You have to be very clear that there is one thing to keep in mind. You have to grow as quickly as possible. You have limited amount of money. Since typically with personal savings you tend to generate less money than otherwise with investors. So really, doing as much as you can in the most cost effective way is the main principle of bootstrap.
First of all, you need to know exactly what you want and never deviate from it. Many people struggle with that. They doubt the initial ideas and change every time they actually face a problem. And that’s really important that you actually don’t do that and you stick to it. At least you stick to it until you test it enough to really make an exact conclusion that, okay, that didn’t work. Now what else can I do? How can I, how can I change my initial idea to serve my customers? So first of all, you need to ask yourself, are you a hundred percent crystal clear on the vision for your business? I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a vision. And it’s something that I’ve also experienced myself a lot. And my main point for why you really need to have a clear vision is that once you start your own company, you will be having, facing so many problems. There will be all the time. There’s basically actually being an entrepreneur is solving hundreds of problems every day. And you will be feeling down and you will be feeling frustrated and feeling that, you know, you want to give up.
But in those moments when you think, you remind yourself of your vision, it will immediately help you to see, okay, what is it that I’m actually doing this all for? What is the bigger picture that I’m striving for? And yes, is getting there. Building a business is a lot of many tiny, tiny, tiny steps, that you need to make in the beginning. And it might, you will not see results immediately. And that’s one of the most frustrating things. But having a vision, clear vision and reminding yourself about it and sticking to it, most importantly will help you to succeed. It just, it lifts you up, it gives you a sense of purpose. And, I definitely recommend this if you’re bootstrapping your own business. So my second advice would be to build products that actually solve a problem. I am generally against creating products just for the sake of it, and especially in a massive way.
So my advice, really, that you build something, you find a problem and you look for a solution for it. The reason for it is that this will make it easy for you to test it. It will make it easier for you to also market it afterwards. Your messaging will be very clear, which will help you to target your customers to deliver your message and your product in the easiest way and the most cost effective way as well. So, really look for something that is actually a solution driven product. In my case, for example, many people ask me why I’m only making dresses. There is nothing else in my collections. The reason for that is that there is enough when it comes to especially work outfits, are many nice blouses, shirts, skirts, and trousers.
But finding a good professional looking elegant, minimal dress. It really gives you the comfort throughout the day and has all the little things like pockets and, you know, it has a nice feel. And at the same time, it’s in an affordable way, many women when they’re starting off their careers, don’t have big budgets to spend. That’s why I am exactly focusing on this product, and looking for ways how I can actually deliver it and solve the problem that women have.
