How LEAN should you go while starting on a shoestring budget?

I am sure that by now the concept of “bootstrapping” might be no news to you, but for the sake of those at the back, bootstrapping is a good way to start a business from scratch if you don’t have any external capital. In this case, you use your own money, your own time, and your own resources to get your business off the ground.

Let me make it easier: imagine you want to start a restaurant. You could go to the bank and ask for money to buy kitchen utensils, a stove or cooker, a grill, and groceries. But if you don’t get the money, as is usually the case, especially for black founders, you can bootstrap your restaurant. This means that you use your own resources to get started. You might ask your family and friends for help with the stove, cooker, and/or grill. You might use your own kitchen utensils. And you might even do your own marketing, like going on social media or door-to-door and telling people about your restaurant.

It’s a good way to learn about business because you have to be creative and resourceful.

Stay with me;

For aspiring entrepreneurs building SaaS products, aka tech entrepreneurs and wannabes, I’m bringing it home now. This is just a subtle reminder that your product is not your business. Let me repeat this: Your software or product is not your business. Now that it’s clear, let’s introduce Lean again. “Lean methodology”, popularized by Eric Ries, is another valuable approach for people starting a business. It emphasizes a systematic, iterative process to build and grow a business while minimizing waste and maximizing learning.

In other words, lean teaches you to work smartly and focus on things that are really important and useful for your customers. By the way, you should listen to your customers and make things they really want. It’s simple: if you make something that your customers don’t like, you learn from it and change it to make them happy. Lean helps you not waste time and resources on things that don’t matter, so you can be successful and make your customers happy.

I had a direction when I thought to put out this article, and tbh, I have no vendetta against anyone, even though I’d like to tag some startup founders or aspiring entrepreneurs in this article in the hopes that they learn. I see many early-stage founders confuse lean for bootstrapping and vice versa, but I’ll try to connect bootstrapping and lean in the easiest possible way so everyone gets the message here.

You see, when bootstrapping a business and applying lean principles, it is not necessary to establish a formal business structure right from the beginning. Because these often involve starting small with limited resources and gradually growing the business. Remember, I didn’t mean growing the product. But at least put some business structure in place to provide a clear framework for managing operations, defining roles and responsibilities, and making strategic decisions as your business moves to the next level.

Today is a good day to bring team management into the picture. The question I hear most often is, "When is the right time to build a team?” And from my heart, I want to tell you, bro or sis, don’t do it! And maybe I’ll eventually say it towards the end, but there’s only one way to find out. The thing is, when or whether you should even get a team if you are bootstrapping depends on a number of factors, including your?budget,?the size and complexity of your business, and your personal preferences.

If you are on a tight budget, you should start with a small team or even just one or two freelancers. As your business grows, you can then start to hire more freelancers and/or full-time employees.

One of the reasons aspiring entrepreneurs should have multiple skills is that it can come in handy as you may be able to handle all or most of the tasks yourself, at least in the early stages. However, as your business grows, i.e., as you start to make sales and generate revenue from paying customers, you can hire additional help. This can be a great way to free up your time so that you can focus on the most important tasks.

If you are bootstrapping a complex business, it is likely that you will need to hire a team from the start, as it will be difficult, if not impossible, to handle all of the tasks yourself. In this case, having an adequate budget to cater to the talent you need is a no-brainer.

Of course, you might encounter challenges with having a team when you are bootstrapping and applying lean principles.

Cost: Hiring talent can be expensive, especially if you are on a tight budget. In this position, you would need to figure out what skills you need most to launch a prototype or MVP for validation and prioritize accordingly based on your budget.

Time: Managing talent can take a lot of time. This is because you need to make sure that everyone is on the same page and that everyone is working towards the same goals. Use product management tools to automate supervision and track progress.

Communication: Communication is key when you have a team. You need to make sure that everyone is communicating effectively with each other. And oh, you don’t need to have unnecessary meetings when you can just send a chat, email, or voice note. When there’s a need to hop on an important meeting, don’t hesitate to, but remember, lean principles aren’t about wasting resources.

If you are considering hiring a team or talent, there are a few things you can do to make the process easier:

• Create a clear job description and interview: This will help you attract the right people for your business.
• Set a budget: To help you narrow down your options (can’t stress this enough)
• Provide training if necessary: This will help your team members be successful.

P.S. You don’t have any business starting a company if you will be owing your team. You can remain in paid employment until you have gathered the resources to build a team and cover some urgent expenses and overhead costs.

And whatever you do, it's important to have a solid lean model/business model in place, it will help you stay on track as you grow your business.        

Until the next article,

To your success!