The Startup Blog - Bootstrapping
by Startacus Admin
Last week Lauren addressed the all important issue of attracting your niche audience, google and good PR! This week Lauren returns with her 8th post for Startacus, on the popular subject of bootstrapping your startup...
"Start-up blog week 8"
"I’ve mentioned in a previous post about my plan to start this business on a limited budget, or bootstrapping as it’s commonly known.
Although bootstrapping isn’t on the surface an ideal scenario for starting a business, particularly when competing with companies that have millions of 
pounds of VC investment, there are certain advantages. One of the key advantages for me is that I am getting to learn about so many different aspects to running a business: financial, marketing, social media, retailers, design, development, and many more. Once the business is more established and I can either employ staff or outsource, it’s good to know that I will have a grounding in these subject areas.
Another advantage is that things have to be done on the cheap. Although this might seem unappealing, it’s amazing how far your money can stretch when you are forced to be a little bit inventive about how you spend each pound to get the best return. Profitability is not a factor at the moment as I’m pre start-up but adopting the principle of getting the highest possible return from any spend is surely a good foundation for a profitable business.
So what are the downsides? Well, one of the most difficult things about bootstrapping is the sheer amount of work to get done, and the breadth of the work. Learning how to focus in on one important area is very difficult when there are others screaming for your attention. So this has been a good learning curve for me in terms of how I get the most out of my time. I thought I’d use the rest of this post to offer a few tips:
-
I love my iPod touch. It’s great for when I don’t have a large amount of time to spare; I can still get something done quickly in 5 minutes
-
Following on from that, one of my favourite apps is Evernote – a straightforward to-do list application. Helpful for prioritising.
-
Reading business news about starting up is great for motivation, ideas and inspiration but it can be a time-zapper. Flipboard is a great application for giving you the most relevant headlines quickly.
-
I try and do my most difficult and high priority tasks early on in the day, as that is usually my most productive time (I’m a morning person) – so a lot gets done between the hours of 7am and 11am.
-
Do emails once a day. Constant streams of information and requests via email can be distracting. Dedicating specific time to replying can save you a lot of time."
About the author: Lauren is an entrepreneur and author of www.theglitteringeyesbrigade.com – a blog about her journey in starting her own business
If you like what you see here on Startacus and want to get involved yourself, why not become a member of our growing community by joining for free here!
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Frolo is a social networking app on a mission to connect single parents to likeminded single parents living in the same area.
Know Your Money, the independent financial comparison website, recently conducted research to find out which UK cities are best to start a business outside of the capital.
University digital academy SurreyIDEA, to scrap tuition fees like a conventional university, for investment in their students’ enterprises.
Starting up a business is difficult. To help, here are 5 things you need as a startup business.
Creating a website can be both costly and time-consuming. So here's 7 ways you can build a budget-friendly website.
Premium fashion resale service Cudoni secures £1.4m investment to support brand growth internationally at a time when the secondary fashion market is booming fuelled by consumer concerns for sustainability.
ESTHER, a pocket-to-pocket giving app which allows a user to give directly to an individual living in poverty, wins an all-expenses paid trip to New York.
The FinTech startup that's using blockchain to make the financial side of filmmaking easier
The London based startup that's created a game that inspires children to code and teaches professional programming skills.
So much is written about how people should go about starting a business, but little is said about whether someone should start one! These are the question we should be asking...
Published on: 7th August 2013
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- ESTHER set for success with New York prize 24th Jun 2019 ESTHER, a pocket-to-pocket giving app which allows a user to give directly to an individual living in poverty, wins an all-expenses paid trip to New York.
- Experiential learning initiative mTech.Academy to build on year 1 success 20th Jun 2019 NI experiential learning initiative mTech.Academy announces plans to expand it's programme for the 2019/20 academic year.
- Stashbee announces £1.6m funding round on Seedrs 17th Jun 2019 Stashbee, the online sharing-economy platform for storage space, has announced a £1.6m funding round on leading European investment platform Seedrs.
- The upSTART finalists at Digital DNA 2019 13th Jun 2019 upSTART, the startup pitch competition at Digital DNA 2019 will see over 20 disruptive NI-based startups pitch to determine who will win an all-expenses paid trip to explore the New York tech scene.
