Attention! Are you ready to enlist in Bootstrap Financing Boot Camp? TODAY'S MISSION: Business Start Up Funding Tactical Maneuvers. Start Up Soldier, I'm going to be giving you a crash course in how you can start a small business, without BIG bank loans. Before you can get started, you must first pass through 3 check point pre-screenings.
Check Point 1: Do You Have What it Takes?
Camp Kitchen
Are you willing to travel through rough and tough terrain, without going A.W.O.L.? Do you understand the risks involved with starting up a new business? Think carefully cadet -- and remember, nothing worthwhile is ever going to be easy.
Check Point 2: Are You Willing to Do Whatever it Takes?
Are you ready for hand-to-hand combat with your bank book? You must be willing to make personal sacrifices to get the job done? Essentially, living with less to gain more. Will you do whatever it takes to get to where you want to be? Will you show no mercy and cut back on frivolous expenditures, like satellite TV?
Check Point 3: Do You Know How to Take...?
...Orders that is soldier! Can you take orders? Not for fries and a shake, but direction from others. Are you willing to learn something new, or to try unfamiliar ways of doing something quite ordinary? If you aren't teachable, then bootstrap financing is not for you. You see, it goes against the grain -- the established ways of doing things. Most "experts" will tell you that the only way to start a business, is if you have access to some major cash of your own; or if you're willing to borrow from banks or investors willing to front you the business start up funding you need.
Congratulations - You've Just Earned Your Stripes!
You've made it. You are no longer a cadet, but a full fledged Start Up Soldier - and you have the battle scars to prove it. Now, onto the crash course in bootstrapping.
Lesson 1: Start With a Highly Profitable Idea, Product or Service
This step is absolutely key to your success. If you were to tell me you'd like to start a café or restaurant business, I'd do my best to talk you out of it. If you were one of my soldiers, I'd order you to rethink your decision. It is next to impossible to bootstrap a restaurant or retail food business with very little money. However, if food was your passion, I would present you with some case studies of how others have bootstrapped and acquired the start up funding needed to grow successful food businesses. Some suggestions? How about a Personal Chef Service, or perhaps you could start up a company baking delicious energy bars and organic snacks, like the owner of Clif Bar & Company.
A Case Study
That's exactly what Gary Erickson (owner and founder of Clif Bar & Company) did. He began trying out energy bar recipes in his mother's kitchen. This is a definite bootstrap financing success story. In 1990, Gary lived in a garage with his dog. Two years later, he launched what would become one of the most successful natural and organic privately held snack food companies, with sales topping 0 million. The future for Clif Bar remains bright. Especially since they have me as one of their loyal customers. I'm munching on one right now, as I peck away on my computer. I would say my family goes through a case of the organic Z Bars in a week! :-)
Lesson 2: Plan a Bootstrap Business Start Up Funding Strategy
This requires that you first have a streamlined personal budget in place. Once you have accomplished that goal, the next step is to create a bootstrap financing plan for your business. This will involve making a complete list of your start up and operating costs, and employing varied bootstrap finance tactical maneuvers to reduce and/or eliminate many of these costs.
Lesson 3: Learn the Art of Bootstrapping
Bootstrapping is not just self financing. It is the art of acquiring business start up funding sources that don't put you into long term, or high interest rate debt.
Did you know that you can find free sources of start up funding? Turn your dreams into a success story. Get on the road to success by starting your business TODAY - even if you have little money, poor credit, or don't own a home.
To learn more, request your free copy of "The Bootstrapper's Business Start-Up Planner", by visiting my website.
©2009 Kimberly Kelly - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Permission to reprint this article is granted strictly on the condition that it be reprinted in its entirety, with all live links and author bio in tact.
Bootstrap Financing Boot Camp - A Crash Course in Business Start Up Funding - Tactical Maneuvers
Kimberly Kelly is a Certified Start Up Business Consultant, specializing in bootstrap start up financing. She teaches new entrepreneurs the secrets for finding free sources of business start up funding through her ebooks, seminars and coaching services. She is the author of the popular selling ebook: The Start-Up Business Survival Guide: 101 FREE Products and Services to Help Finance Your Dream of Successful Business Ownership. Visit her website at http://www.StartUpBusinessSurvivalGuide.com
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