Top 5 Bootstrapping Mistakes

Monday, October 23, 2006 at 12:21pm by Justin Brooke in Bootstrapping

Hi all, I’d like to formally introduce myself. I am a new member and writer to Mind Petals, my name is Justin Brooke. It is my pleasure to write this bootstrapping column from now on, as I make my living via bootstrapping my own business. Although, the luck surely falls on you readers, because hopefully you now get to be geniuses. (A smart man learns from his mistakes, but a genius learns from the mistakes of others.) That being said here is a list of the top 5 mistakes bootstrappers make:

• Buying new

New business owners are passionate and should be in order to succeed. However, being too passionate about your business when it comes to purchasing supplies and hardware can be a major boon on your business. There are not too many situations where a new business owner needs to buy new things. Be resourceful and find them used, it is imperative that you do not overspend in this infancy stage. You need to be investing that money back into your business and creating value. Physical appearance comes much later; when you are struggling to find tax write-offs…Did I just say that out loud? };-)

• Move too fast

Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps! In the carpentry world they have a quote “measure twice, cut once.” Well an entrepreneur can adopt and adapt this same theory to say “analyze twice, act once.” Even Bruce Lee had to study for years to be the expert that he was, so take your time and develop your business slowly. By doing so you can rest assured that your foundation and each new layer will be concrete.

• Outsourcing too much

Outsourcing has become all the rage lately. It’s a fast, easy way to get more done! BUT YOU’RE SPENDING AGAIN! It can be wise to outsource some of your tasks but make sure you are not outsourcing the wrong things. If you are not willing to work on your business, how could you ever expect your employees to? There is a way to easily rationalize good outsourcing versus bad. If you outsource something for $200 and it brings in $500 well then obviously that’s good outsourcing. However, outsourcing labor that does not create positive revenue is what you have to minimize.

• Inflexibility

Adaptation is a quality every entrepreneur must have. For instance take a look at the web design industry right now. If all you know is designing web pages you are missing out on all kinds of revenue. The guys making it big right now, are the SEO experts. Today’s web designers must possess search engine optimization/marketing skills or risk the loss of customers. This is why you must always be alert to new possible revenue streams for your business and adapt yourself accordingly.

• Lack of organization

This is absolutely one of the biggest killers of small businesses. When you are just starting out you need to be tracking EVERYTHING. Your business will run much smoother the more you know about your business. When you are bootstrapping your own business, every marketing dollar counts. Without organization how can you tell which marketing strategy is working best? Another essential tracking system required is a time management schedule. You would be amazed at how much more you can do in a day, a week, a month if you create a schedule and keep to it. Keeping a schedule will help keep those baby steps we talked about moving smoothly, so that you can see results in a timely manner.

Be honest with yourself and ask: Am I making any of these mistakes? If so, take action TODAY! Correct them and three months from now you’ll look back and say… “Wow, that really was a much bigger deal than I thought. I’m glad I started taking baby steps, made a schedule, increased my flexibility, reduced my outsourcing dollars, and didn’t buy that brand new Dell XPS w/ 500gb hard drive set to raid 0 , 24″ monitor, and NVIDIA 7800 graphics card.

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