"10 Best" Creative Ideas to Bootstrap Your Startup

Entrepreneurs understand the advantages of bootstrapping ; no dilution and the satisfaction that comes from growing your idea into a business from scratch.?

1. Drive Revenues: Sell Before You Build: A non-binding letter of intent is a tool used by entrepreneurs to gauge the commitment of their potential customers and to prove potential revenues to investors. At a high level, the letter should define what you and the customer will provide upon product/service delivery You can use this tool to define the details of how you will deliver your unique solution to your customer(s) BEFORE you invest in building anything. Writing an LOI on paper is far less expensive than writing computer code.

2. Be a Consultant then Scale:?As a consultant, you are paid to understand and fix your customer's problems. Over time, you may be able to develop a scalable solution that you can roll out to a larger market. Bill Gates started out as a software programmer in high school and leverage that experience to start Microsoft.

3. Get the Credit Card built for startups: Use this card to fund your business. Divvy was created for startups and small businesses. No personal guarantee, up to $400,00 line of credit, fast approval.?

4. Don’t have a company yet? Save money by setting it up yourself vs. hiring a law firm: Effortlessly set up your LLC, Corp, or S-Corp in any state with IncFile. Low cost, fast, simple, and no hassle. Since 2004 over 1 million entrepreneurs have incorporated with IncFile. (I recommend an LLC for startups, you can always convert to another structure later).

5. The Hustle Fund: It’s not quite bootstrapping, but check it out anyway Hustle Fund for Harliariously Early Startup

6. Borrow from your 401K or withdraw from your IRA:?Yes, you can borrow from your 401K and or withdraw from your IRA to fund your startup. While there are restrictions many have done it, including me.

7. Crowd Funding: Crowdfunding is a way to raise funds from individuals who believe in your vision.?The 6 Best Crowdfunding Platforms of 2023

8. Peer-to-Peer Lending: Borrow money from individuals through online platforms that match borrowers with lenders. Top 6 Peer-to-Peer Lending Sites. and Forbes Best of 2023 List.

9. Creative Bartering / Trade Equity for Expertise: You can trade equity as payment to key staff such as developers. Consider bartering items for services, like that motorcycle in the garage that you seldom ride.

• Tradebank - Tradebank is a barter exchange network that allows businesses to trade goods and services without using cash. They have a network of over 50,000 members in the United States and Canada. https://tradebank.com/learn/?
• Bartercard - Bartercard is a global barter exchange that allows businesses to trade goods and services with other businesses in their network. They have over 20,000 members in 8 countries. https://bartercard.com/how-bartercard-works/?
• Simbi - Simbi is a platform that allows individuals to trade services and skills with each other. They use a digital currency called "simbi" that can be used to purchase other services on the platform. https://simbi.com/howitworks?
• BizX - BizX is a barter network that allows businesses to trade goods and services with each other. They have over 5,000 members in the United States and Canada. https://www.bizx.com/how-it-works ?

10. Audience Building: Before you spend any money, define your niche & build your audience for FREE. The object of every early-stage company is to consistently create Upside Asymmetric Opportunities (UAPs) . This means that in every scenario your Upside is GREATER than your Downside. Think High Reward / Low Risk. Adopt a UAP mindset by following the process below.?

The Process;?

• Define your niche : You simply don’t have enough people, time, or resources to sell to everyone. However, you must sell to someone, define the who, and build your Niche Customer Persona .?
• Fall in love with your niche customer’s problem FIRST, then build your unique solution for them.?Many entrepreneurs spend a great deal of time and money building solutions for insignificant problems or ones that don't really exist.
• Build a very low/no-cost MVP prototype. Your initial product/service will change many times, you only need an MVP prototype or slide deck to convey your solution.?

• Build your niche customer audience BEFORE you spend any money on building a product or service. Create compelling content for your audience on your YouTube channel, Blog, Website, Podcast, and social media platforms for FREE.?
• Pitch your idea at your local Venture Cafe , and other startup events in your community to build an audience and attract new followers.?
• Low Risk / High Reward Guerrilla Marketing: Gabe Copper, the Co-Founder of NogginBoss snuck a dozen of his big hats into the Phoenix Suns NBA playoffs game and gave them out to fans seated on the floor. The hats became a Jumbo-Tron sensation and garnered national attention. The NBA commissioner was in the audience and ask Gabe if he could have a NogginBoss! This was well before NogginBoss closed the fasted deal ever on ABC’s Shark Tank .?
• Creating your audiences FIRST is Upside Asymmetric High Reward / Low-Risk thinking. The audience you build will likely become your customers.