Bootstrapping a business in the sense – taking control of your business 100% in your hand. Many people would prefer to have investors and VCs for starting a business but remember a business initially needs your time, not your money. To have full freedom, be self-dependent, and build a long-term business. Bootstrapped is important.
In the case of investors, it takes time to grow the business, and investors want short-term growth but sometimes a new start-up fails to do. This fails majority of the startups. So, here’re the guaranteed steps to bootstrap a business and examples of successful founders.
Golden Steps for a Successful Bootstrapped Business
1) Choosing your expertise- When you choose a business, be passionate in your area and become a master at it. Without that, you can not solve the burning problems of the customers within your business. So, be the master of one of your passionate fields.
2) Read reviews and ratings of other brands- Make sure you read every product review & ratings of your competitors on different platforms. Implement the same experience in your business but improve the negative experiences to gain a large audience. Appoint a specific team to work on your action plan. Kent RO identified that India is suffering from unsafe water and penetrated the market slowly.
3) Build alliances with your supplier/creditor- If you have a product idea but don’t have enough resources like machinery, raw material, etc. then give extra commissions to the credit or service provider. Doing this, offer a credit period of 6-8 months, as in that period you can gain customers and your business can get started. You need to have negotiation & closing skills for this and it can be started with little to no money.
4) Funding – Take funds from your family friends, or mentors. You can work at freelancing sites and earn a second income to reinvest. But that work should contribute to your business. In this way, funds will be arranged for your business. Don’t take loans from banks.
5) Be very Frugal – You need to be frugal in your initial stage, when Elon Musk started his Tesla company, they were cutting the cost at the max level. So, hire people on a work basis, set up a simple office than a home to feel like you’re working, and minimize the cost at every step possible.
6) Leverage your Social network- Animoto started their journey through LinkedIn, their CEO was posting regular videos on meeting with clients or success of venture on social networks. That gain traction and traffic was attracted with little to no money. It also creates your brand identity as people like people not the logo of your brand.
7) Wear many hats- Initially, you’ve to take every work possible in, as you don’t have enough funds so you should do content writing, marketing, sales, and hiring, etc. When you have enough revenue, you can hire skilled people to scale further.
8) Skyrocket your sales – As you can’t live for many days like this, instead you need to make J-curve in your business. For that, you need excellent marketing skills, constant follow-up with referrals, and collaborating with other brands if possible.
Reaching the top, every month must be your goal then you can become successful in 4-5 years.
Examples of Successful Bootstrapped Founders:
1) IIDE (Indian Institute of Digital Education) – It’s the Digital marketing institute of India which specializes in every aspect. Trainers from top brands and business owners deliver their experiences, learnings, and secrets to the students. It’s also been awarded the No. 1 Institute of Digital Marketing. Karan Shah has build his business in 2016 from a very low level and made it successful in different countries.
2) Bada Business – Bada Business is an initiative by Dr. Vivek Bindra which focusses on giving highly affordable business content with action plans. Billionaire professors teach here and it’s more than an MBA level program with a cost of less than 1 lakh. Their vision is to make India No. 1 in entrepreneurship.
3) Kent RO – Kent RO was started by the savings of Dr. Mahesh Gupta and they try to sell their products directly by demonstrating to customers and getting the actual benefits. Few machines were sold and people started to like their product as they were solving their drinking problem and making a healthier life with a one-time investment. It was totally started with low investment and now they’ve reached massive revenue of 500+cr with their amazing brand authority in the market.
I hope the above steps and examples will help you to start your own business with your money and enjoy total freedom. Comment below which steps you’re using and some amazing thoughts and suggestions, I am always to hear from you!
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