Lesson Progress
0% Complete
Transcript
First of all, you save a lot of time by not looking for outside investment. I remember when I was in my office job before and our company was looking for investments. It would take up to a year, year and a half from the moment that we’re actually reach out to investors to all these negotiations. And then reevaluation because in one year, so many things change. So you have to again start off from zero and it would really take so much time. So bootstrapping you can really, I mean, you can do in a couple of weeks or even a day if it’s all about your personal savings. That’s definitely the first advantage. Second is that you have full control of your business.
There is nobody who tells you what to do. There is nobody to intervene into your plan. You really make all the decisions yourself. Also another one that might be overlooked in general, it’s the fact that if you’re bootstrapping, you’re hugely dependent on customers. So customers become your number one priority and because you are raising all the money from the purchase, the sales you make. So if you succeed in the first year or whatever, how long this bootstrapping period will be for you in the end you will end up having a healthy, sustainable and customer focused business. So, I think that is really also a strong advantage in favor of bootstrapping. And another advantage is that you, it forces you to be more creative. Whenever you have little money, little budget, you do tend to be, way more, looking for outside of the box and ideas.
For example, I had to launch the brand and I wanted to do it in an offline, as well, way not on the online. And I had only 500 euros budget. For an event that is really, really nothing, especially if you consider all how much the prices are of renting even a one day pop-up store in Berlin. So, I struggled for a month. And, I went to my favorite cafe that is in a very nice isolated little garden in the back of the houses. It’s very nice and decorated. It had all the, you know, paintings on the walls and everything and they also provide food. So, They loved the event. I loved the event. The customers afterwards, like the participants of the event for days after were texting me about how lovely it was and all I spent was 500 euros, if I had to do it in a popup location, catering, you know, rentals prices would be like 1,500, 2000 euros minimum. And plus also the furniture that you have to bring there. There I had everything. I have many examples like this when I had to be more creative due to the limited budget I have. So, definitely a it makes you think more outside the box and be more creative.
It might and probably will take you more time to grow your business compared to if you had investment outside of investment and more money to start off. You will most likely be working alone unless you’re starting off with a friend or a business partner.You almost likely be working alone and will have not take salary for some time. Usually if you have external investment, you already incorporate your salary from the day one in this case, unfortunately not. So you need to be comfortable with that as well and plan that you can also live off your personal savings for the time. And, of course there is a risk that you might be in debt. So that’s also something to consider and to really think about. Okay. It’s always tempting to, to ask for more money than you need at the moment. Think about whether you really need that extra or if you can just go with what you have at the moment and then later on consider as you grow
