About Bootstrapping Central

Bootstrapping Central is intended for bootstrapping startups or those who are yet to get funded. A place where you can discuss and share your experiences as you chase your dreams with money you don’t have.

Here you can also have a ringside view as I bootstrap my startup to untold riches with an investment of moonlighted hours after my regular day job and a little money I haven’t saved yet.

If you would like to participate is some way, mention your skills/ time you can offer and what skills (or time) you are looking for in the comments section.

Family engagements take away 6 bootstrapping days

Some family commitments cant be avoided. Last week it was a funeral of an Uncle. This week it was an engagement party and a baptism. All of these required extensive travel.

Since I was away from it all it was a good opportunity to unwind. Needless to say the bootstrapper in me was ticking inspite of all the unwinding. Networking, gathering ideas for the business, promoting the idea and occasionally acting as a sounding board for some entrepreneur friends.

While I was with close friends and family I realised building a strong support group is something many of us do not (atleast I did not) include  in our plans. I believe a strong support group is very important resource to fall back upon when your bootstrapping business out there are not going that well or when you are looking for some instant feedback. But I guess there is always the other side of the coin where you rely too much on the group or they are pulling you down. I guess like all resources you have to use it wisely. (easier said than done).

Now that I done with all the time consuming family commitments, I hope to focus on executing the plan and reach some meaningful milestones.

3 hours a day, cant be that difficult.

Week 1 – Review

One page business plan-                Done 15th May ( not posting it here at the moment)

Hours @ bootstrapping (target 20 hrs/week)  –     Was only able to do 8 hours.

Lesson 1. Get your family involved in your bootstrapping entrepreneurial journey, without their support you cant just disappear.  Lesson 2. Do not take it for granted that you will be able to put in 6- 10 hours on a weekend just because you are not at your regular job. Home and family take away a lot of time on weekends. 2-3 hrs every day (week days and weekends) is more realistic.

To do list – 15th May 09

To Do list as of 5.30 pm, friday, 15 May 2006

Business Plan

Business Plan or no Business Plan

I have been wondering if I need a business plan or not for a while. I did create one when I participated in the Economic Times, Power of Ideas Contest ( I did not get into the final 250 if you wanted to know).  But that plan is no longer relevant as I have simplified my business idea a great deal to fit into my bootstrapping strategy.

There are two schools of thought on the need of business plans for bootstrapping startups, though an overwhelming majority prefer at least some sort of Business Plan.

I have decided to go with the majority on this. But I plan to create a simple  one page  Business Plan. It will cover the points given below.

1. Create a Mantra (What do I plan to do)
2. Position against the big name in the category
3. Build the Core Applications quickly, Build Saleable products/Services (revenue stream).
4. A note on the How part of the business, How do I create my product, How do I  reach my customer, How do I make revenues
5. How much do I plan to spend (time and money) on the product creation, reaching my customers (marketing)
6. Projected revenues based on my effort and money spent as planned in point 5 (milestones)
7. Use of  revenue

I don’t intend to spend more than half a day to create the plan. I plan to add, remove or improve the contents of the plan as I go along. In addition I also plan a activity based milestones to track progress.

The first activity on this list is : Make Business Plan: Deadline today, 15 May 2009

Let me know your thoughts?

The bug bites again

I have been an entrepreneur for a better part of my working life but after struggling (profitable but not able to grow for want of capital) for a few years in my travel books publishing business, I decided to seek the safety of corporate life. But now after 4 years of Corporate life, the entrepreneurial bug bites again.

Bad times
True the economy is in terrible shape, existing businesses are struggling and every one I know is trying to hang on to their jobs for dear (corporate) life. The realistic side of my brain tells me to do as others are doing. But quelling the growing rebellion seems a little beyond me.

The compromise
For the time being I have decided to work on my idea and build it into a business without quitting my day job till

1. I can see a trend in my revenues (curently zero)
2. The business gets significant traction in terms of measurables (other than revenues)

I understand its easier said than done but I think I can put in at least 20 hours a week.

Funding
In the meanwhile if at all I need funding I have decided to seek funds (in exchange for equity) from Self, Friends or Family.

Launch Development Activities
So I have started to identify technical resources to build the Web 2 business.  I hope to complete the design prototype and the work on costing structure by the 15th of June 2009.  The development itself shouldn’t take long. Tweaking and testing will be a continuous process after launch.

I will try to post the progress of this bootstrapping trip atleast on a weekly basis.

Catch rest of the story here

Bootstrapping Success Stories

How Paul Aldrich of Village Candle started with a 20 USD investment and built it to a 30 Million USD business in 7 years.  Lessons: Think simple. Cash is King, Growth can come later.

This is one you will really like even if it’s a little dated. It seems like Digg.com was bootstrapped with $ 2000! Read the story here. And interestingly $ 1200 was the domain cost. Brilliant.

Also read how Guy Kawasaki built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09 with the detailed breakup of the princely investment. Too good to be true. Truerumors.com was subsequently sold to NowPublic.com for an undisclosed sum. Wonder if anyone has a true rumour regarding the undisclosed sum.

Bootstrapping

Startups that bootstrap their business fund development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with their expenses – Wikipedia

Why Bootstrap?

1. Not everyone can get funded

2. Gives you more freedom (100% control) in the initial stages to experiment and get the product right

3. If your business model works then you have a slight edge while negotiating for funding and of course you can decide to go it alone without funding.

4. Bootstrapping will give you financial disciple (you cant spend when you dont have) and hence be more capital efficient.

5. Escape corporate structure that VC’s might bring.

These are some of the reasons why I am on the bootstrapping track. Of course I understand there are 2 sides to the coin. I will have to watch out for the negatives.

Ryan Spoon (of Kijiji.com fame) has some great tips on bootstrapping, I found them very practical except for rule # 12. (Buy your team Blackberries) not very practical in the Indian scene, I am sure you will agree.

Happy Ventures

Hey You – bootstrapping Rupee pinching startup!

If you are a startup without serious funding then this is where (hopefully) you will find your partners to fill in that virtual Tech Lead chair or the Chief Marketing Officer that you cant afford or any other critical talent that you need to start off.

Your time and your own talent maybe all that you can offer in return, but hey isn’t that valuable enough after all you have thought up something valuable and are risking your neck (maybe just your time) because you believe its going to change the world!

But hey, how am I gonna trust someone with my game changer of an idea? Well isn’t that name of the game you are in. Entrepreneurial risk. That’s just one more risk you got to take.

How are you going find that elusive partner? Frankly I do not have a clue but I am hoping like minded souls will somehow trickle in and find ways to collaborate.

Bon Voyage!