You might not know, unless you’re a web designer, but there is a war in the web development industry right now. This is a great thing for business owners because prices are all over the board. Due to all the popularity of template based web design companies, the custom design guys are either dropping their [...]

There is nothing more crucial to successfully bootstrapping your business than free marketing. This is my personal check list for every website I start. Not only will this drive traffic to your businesses web presence, but can also get you a free high ranking Google listing. From what I hear, having a link to your [...]

Imagine as a bootstrapper, there was a place you could go and speak with a lawyer for patent advice or partnership contracts. What if this place also had experienced CEO’s you could go and chat with about writing a business plan, raising capital, and operations management. Imagine this place had a library of business books, [...]

A bootstrapper often has to rely on cold calling to get business, and cold callers have an arch nemesis called the “gatekeeper.” This is usually a secretary, receptionist, or anyone at the front desk answering calls. This person’s job is to stop sales calls from getting to the people that matter most when selling a [...]

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 [...]

BootStrapMe is a blog focused on… guess what… bootstrapping you business. For most of us, getting venture capital or angel funding will never be the case. That’s where the bootstrapping mindset comes in handy. In this day ‘n age, it’s never been easier to build a business with little to no capital – it can [...]

As some of my ventures have grown and required the need for advertising and marketing expenditures I quickly realized that advertising inventory is regularly negotiable. Even big companies like Google Adwords and Overture regularly offer coupons for new customers. A quick search will turn them up. Other small networks allow you to sign up and [...]

A great trick I uncovered this summer is ‘deferred compensation’. Say I have a great new idea for a business that is going to change the world. Whenever I tell someone about the idea they get really excited and want to know how to help. However, I do not have all the skill sets to [...]

One evening I had the privilege of having dinner with David Friend, a serial tech entrepreneur, and currently the CEO and founder of Carbonite (a new back up solution that keeps all your personal data safe). He had a very interesting perspective on business plans. He had never made a business plan for any of [...]