I was reading through the YE Forums today and noticed a thread on bootstrapping so I thought I would share a list of top ways to bootstrap your business. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, bootstrapping is the process of spending as little money as possible to get your business off the ground. It is equivalent to starting a business on a shoe-string or limited budget.

Ways To Bootstrap Your Business (in no particular order)

1. Work from home to save on rent, commuting costs, and you can deduct some of your home costs for tax purposes.
2. Get customers to pay upfront by selling membership, subscriptions, gift certificates, coupon books and other initiatives to get their money now and deliver later.
3. Lease or rent equipment and other major purchases instead of buying. Always try to push off payment to the future.
4. Get used instead of new equipment to save on the expensive price tags.
5. Barter your products / services in exchange for something you really need.
6. Get free publicity by contacting reporters with a story idea instead of buying expensive advertising.
7. Do a side job to make sure you have an income that lets your business survive in the early days.
8. Give sweat equity to employees / partners instead of paying a salary.
9. Take as little as you can out of the business and focus on growing the company so you can bring in more cash in the future.
10. Manage your cash flow and make sure there is more coming in than going out before you start spending money

Evan Carmichael