Bootstrap Your Way to Immense Profitability by Proving Your Idea Solves A True Customer Need!

As a lender who works with entrepreneurs and start-up companies, my motto with them is always “show me the money!” When a prospect opens up their wallet and pays money for your product or service, then you can say you have a valid business. Until you have real customers who are credit worthy, most lenders and investors won’t give you funding for your business dream because you haven’t proven it works. I recommend to every business owner I coach to do everything you can to leverage your assets to put your firm in a strong position before you attempt to secure financing from outside sources.

Before you get your first sale, you only have an idea which could work. You don’t have a business. Being turned down for financing can be a good thing for you. This may sound counter intuitive since rejection doesn’t make you feel very good, but it’s truly a great source of valid feedback. It often means you need to do more work to prove your business plan. I get financing clients who procrastinate about writing their business and marketing plan, but they want me to help them get hundreds of thousands of dollars for their dream. Would you invest in an entrepreneur who hasn’t written a comprehensive plan? You should try to see it from your lender’s or investor’s point of view.

Whether you’re looking for financing or to raise money from an investor, your goal should be to make sales as early as possible to generate real revenues for your new venture.

Recent sales are the evidence I want to see at Donald Hunter Financial. Contracts, invoices, purchase orders, all show a market for your products or services. And you want to have well established customers with a great track record for paying their bills

A huge benefit of bootstrapping your way to profitability is the more products or services you sell early on, the less outside money you need to raise to make further investments to position your company for growth while at the same time securing your intellectual property and branding your products and services.

Generating cash flow through an actual sale may be the only option for service companies or businesses with few assets to secure financing. Bootstrapping means you will need to give away much less equity in your company to investors.

A Warning to Bootstrappers

Before I go further, I have one caveat for you. Leveraging your existing assets is a great goal, but you don’t want to run out of money trying to do it all yourself. Once you run out of money, no serious lender or investor will work with you. I say this because most financing sources want you to have current funds available to invest at the time they decide to approve you for funding. The amount you’ve already invested doesn’t matter. So keep a balanced approach when going it all alone!

Benefits of a Bootstrapping Mindset

• It keeps you focused on revenue generation
• You keep control over your idea
• You get to reap more of the financial rewards
• You learn to manage your limited resources efficiently

Types of Businesses Where Bootstrapping Make Sense

• The business relies on your proven personal talents and skills
• The business doesn’t require large sums of capital to get started on a small scale
• You already have good industry contacts

Type of Businesses Where Bootstrapping Doesn’t Make Sense

• Lots of R&D is required
• You need expensive equipment to deliver your product or service
• A prototype costs lots of money to build
• You have no prior experience serving the market
• Your business requires economies of scale and scope

As a business coach, I help business owners and entrepreneurs figure out whether they can start-up without outside capital. I guide them through the process of analyzing their sales model from the perspective of rapid revenue generation.  My goal is to help them to construct a business model focused on producing a few quick sales as soon as possible.

Bootstrapping Tips

• Spend your funds only on marketing and sales activities directed at a well defined target market.
• Make sure your target customer is credit worthy.
• Create the lowest cost prototype which is good enough to make a sale (E.G., paper design or video).
• Develop the product only when you get a purchase order in-hand.
• Don’t go out and rent office space and purchase unnecessary equipment

There are lots of alternative ways I can help you to fund your business growth. If you generate invoices or purchase orders, you‘ll have access to fast, flexible financing options through my Money Tree Cash Flow program. And most importantly, your credit isn’t an issue with these funding alternatives. Invoices or purchase orders from a credit worthy customer allow you to get cash to fund daily operations and to manufacture your product. You won’t need a loan or capital from an investor to fund your operating costs in the start-up phase! You can rely on factoring or purchase order finance for immediate cash, which is not a loan. Sign up for a complimentary finance consultation to speak to me about ways in which I can help you fund your business.

Bootstrapping Consulting

Are you a “bootstrapper”? What are your top three goals you need some help with right now to start up your business? I can help you develop ways to target your customers to focus on generating immediate sales to prove your business idea meets a true customer need.

You’ll then be in an excellent position to seek funding to expand your business at a much faster pace. Then, I can help you get quick cash for your invoices and purchase orders through my Money Tree Cash Flow program.

Call me today at (866) 323-9123 or sign-up for a complimentary session in my Bootstrap to Profitability Coaching Tune-Up program. I’ll help you develop your business strategy to take advantage of your bootstrapping opportunities straightaway.

Donald Hunter