Bootstrapping Your Side Business:

On Mindset, Money Management, and Working ON the Business.

What do Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Pierre Omidyar of eBay, and John Pemberton of Coca-Cola have in common? They bootstrapped their startups from nothing to the juggernauts they are today.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that many successful full-time professionals are hustling to run a side business – all while also supporting a growing family.

While the juggling is undoubtedly something that can be done, it’s not for the faint-hearted. The long, daily commutes, the intricacies of building a business from the ground up, the demands of a job that still pays the bills, and the need to keep up with family life can easily take a toll on anyone who’s not physically, mentally, and emotionally equipped to take the plunge.

Wearing several different hats – and being effective at each one –  is already a tough act to pull off, more so when the side business involves just you. But with grit, willpower, and some mindset tweaking, there is a way to get through to the other side.

Bootstrapping your side business
– three lessons to take away

Not all entrepreneurs have access to seed funding, and often, your shot at an investor taking a keen interest in what your startup is doing rests on your ability to demonstrate market traction in your investor pitch. Without traction, you’re left with no choice but to haul yourself up by the bootstraps.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. One of the often-cited pitfalls of bootstrapping is a possible delay in launch because of cash shortage, but with bootstrapping comes hands-on experience that years of studying may never adequately teach.

Let’s discuss three of those lessons:

These hypothetical scenarios were so crippling that he adopted what he called an “investment and business” mindset.

First off, he saw bootstrapping as an investment with no downside, an opportunity to invest in, and not a problem to solve. In his mind, as long as he wasn’t taking any significant risks, such as a second mortgage to finance the business, he should be okay. Whether the business took off or not, he wasn’t incurring any losses. The entrepreneurial experience alone would teach him things he would otherwise not learn or meet people he would otherwise not meet.

Becoming friends and doing business with New York Times best-selling authors Dan Miller (48 Days to the Work You Love) and Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul series) were a testament to that.

Second, he treated the bootstrapping journey like a business. He made time for it despite the fact he was married and had kids, worked a full-time job, and was dead serious about personal development through reading, goal setting, journaling, and exercising. He forced himself to focus on what mattered by renouncing mindless TV and hobbies that ate so much of his time.

You are not your business

Most sidepreneurs start their businesses alone. And when you’re in charge of everything – planning, marketing, operations, and accounting, among other things – it’s easy to feel like you’re going nowhere, or the needle is moving too slowly despite giving the business everything you’ve got. The worse part is, if you fail to give it your all even for just a day, the business falters and can potentially wipe out the small gains you’ve so far achieved.

Michael Gerber’s “E-Myth Revisited” advises entrepreneurs to work ON the business, not just IN the business. This means to develop systems and processes that will automate the business and extricate you from its core day-to-day operations in the long run. Until then, all you have is a job, not a business.

Scaling a business is not a one-man show. At some point, whether you like it or not, you will need a good business partner and trustworthy people into the team, and then let go of work you would rather do yourself via effective task delegation.

Be wise about money

Because you have limited funds to scale the business, money management when you’re bootstrapping becomes critical. EAT Club co-founder Rodrigo Santibanez emphasizes watching cash “like a hawk” on a daily basis, separating personal and business accounts, cutting personal expenses, and spending only when necessary.  While that doesn’t sound like a fun thing to do, the initial sacrifice can pay off handsomely – in EAT Club’s case, the investor funding awarded to them merely six weeks after they demonstrated traction and potential success.

Final word

Bootstrapping a side business is not an easy choice to make, not the easiest to do, not even the fastest way to go. But if you’re looking to build a sustainable business that can stand on its own, without needing funding to keep it alive, bootstrapping is worth considering.  If you decide to take that route, hopefully, the lessons laid out above can point you in the right direction.

It starts in the mind

Lifestyle entrepreneur Kent Julian of Live It Forward has an interesting story to tell about mindset. When he launched his side business, he asked the same questions most newbie entrepreneurs asked:

• What if I don’t gain any traction?
• What if I make the wrong decision?
• What if the side business doesn’t produce any results?
• What if I fail?

Author: Maricel Rivera

Maricel Rivera is a writer, editor, and self-taught content marketer who works from home full-time. She started writing on the side while working a full-time job in 2012. She owns a writing business and is in the process of learning how to make it thrive.   http://riverawrites.com/

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