Today I had bootstrapping start-ups on my mind after hearing it mentioned a few times at a conference this past weekend.  Bootstrapping is funding a business on the barest minimum and this practice is becoming more common by the minute as we face high unemployment, and underemployment.  Sometimes the only route is to start your own business.  The usual obstacle that’s first encountered is no money and no way to borrow it.  I shared this article on my Facebook page which offers more on the subject— Ten Rules for Bootstrapping Your Business

In my last article I talked about the Size Surprise.  The shock some receive when it turns out to be really difficult to build an audience online or to realize any boost in business from a large audience that was created from personal connections to the business owner rather than the actual product or service being offered.

The reality is starting a business in any circumstance is just plain hard work.  Most of the time, even the overnight successes turn out to not be such overnight successes when the whole story comes to light.   It is particularly hard for the army of one. Starting with an idea, some passion and a lot of willingness to work ridiculously long hours to make something happen all by yourself.

The good news is social media, the Internet, email and a multitude of other tools and services make bootstrapping your way to a new source of income more accessible than it has ever been.  It just calls for learning and applying strategy.

Simply hopping online, creating a presence in a few social media channels and plugging in messages about your business won’t have the desired outcome.  Marketing online is much different than running an ad in the local paper, buying a TV spot or advertising on the radio.  Instead of thinking about reaching masses of people and repeating over and over in a variety of ways what you do, why it’s great and how much it costs you now have to think about letting the business truly come to you.

You are trying to build a “hub” on the web.  A place where all paths related to the products and services you offer just happen to conveniently intersect.  This is the subject of my entire blog here at How2MarketingAdvice, Inbound Marketing.  It is the strategy for marketing a business online and you can learn every facet of it right here and without having to pay a fee to have access to the content.  The posts are not hooks to make you buy something.

Once you master the strategy of how to use the Internet and social media as tools for building a business, it will start to grow and you will find it is no longer practical for you to sit at the computer building all of the content that goes into this strategy and you will be looking for ways to outsource the task.  That is when I hope you will turn to me for help to make things more efficient and profitable but you certainly don’t have to – you can learn it all right here at no charge and never spend a dime.

It’s tough being an army of one. Many won’t take you seriously and you will often find yourself obsessing about the outward appearance of things. In navigating this course myself I’ve learned to tune things out that don’t contribute to my goals.  When you’re on your own you must stay focused and become very disciplined.  Some kind of big picture should be lingering out ahead of you but it is not important to write it down or spend hours plugging in the details.  You can’t formulate a detailed plan when you’re bootstrapping it. The details are not yet available since there are too many variables in play.

So, relax, and take some advice from Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer, I LOVE his show) and do what he says the dogs do, live in the moment. Concentrate on what you have and what you can do right now. Set aside the things that don’t work or aren’t available to you right now and don’t get caught up in appearances.  Not everyone has been in our shoes and not everyone understands that it really is possible to start a business this way so sometimes there will be criticism or the occasional lecture from well-intentioned people prepared to explain why this cannot possibly work.  The self-doubt monster will stalk your every move.  If you’re going to fail, fail in the field and not in your mind.

I ask that you subscribe to my email list, join my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.  I am sharing a lot of information through these channels (with some content that is exclusive to each channel) aimed at helping people learn the steps of inbound marketing.  During this week I’ll be adding an education page filled with information and resources for all who cares to spend the time learning exactly how to build a strong marketing strategy, even when they have little or no money to invest in it. Time will be the investment. Luckily it’s what most of us find we have in abundance when there is a job loss in the picture.