PRESENTATION OUTLINE
How You Can Bootstrap for Success:
Are you thinking about starting a business? In the Oct 31st, 2017 edition of Forbes, Stephen Hetzel shared some lessons learned, along with
11 tips for success.
Don't rush to hire people.
If you are a product person like myself, you probably will not enjoy some aspects of human resources. While bringing in talented teammates is enlightening, the selection process can be a challenge unless that is your core skillset. When we first started out, we were very informal in our approach.
Our first few years, we only worked with contractors. Many of those contractors have since become W2 employees of the company. Working with contractors allowed for both parties to be more noncommittal, so we could quickly end the contract if it was not a good relationship, and save money and time on payroll expenses by offsetting the responsibility to the contractor. Be sure to research and comply with IRS guidelines for contractors, as well as provide enough autonomy for those roles.
Ignore private equity calls (for a while).
I'm not saying don't ever talk with them, but in our case, they tended to become distractions. After we launched with a profitable concept, we had dozens of firms reach out to us promising growth and a shortcut to success. Remember that these are great salespeople. Unless you are truly ready to let an outsider contribute to your product and decisions, take these calls like you would a timeshare presentation. You really only attended to get those Cirque du Soleil tickets, right? I decided that while what we had was lean, it was growing to my satisfaction.
Cross train your teammates.
Some of our most valuable staff now are the ones who we cross-trained in the beginning. Back then, we had to share a lot of tasks in case someone was out. Cross training allows for distributed hands-on training when bringing in new personnel, and helps you transfer your skills as you grow or get acquired.
Focus on recurring revenue.
In 2009, we opted to launch our service through a monthly recurring subscription. This allowed us to build monthly recurring revenue while easing the traditional barrier of a high cost and risk of an annual
subscription. It was a safe bet, but I would do it again.
Every moment that goes by without incoming revenue is an expense. We didn't pay ourselves for the first nine months. However, we had to pay to keep the lights and servers on, as well as pay our contractors. Five weeks after we started charging monthly subscriptions, we broke even. That said, we didn't
have the time or money to celebrate
that occasion.
Every expense can have an impact on your bottom line. When launching, it was tempting to rely on paid marketing resources that promised to sell our product or provide email templates that would drive leads or conversions. Instead of that risk, we followed our instincts. Odds are, if they are promising something great with little input and their solutions are not tailored to you, it probably will profit them more than you.
Have a few trusted, real advisors.
My family and a few close advisors were vested in my success. I could approach some of these advisors with real issues or problems and receive clear advice. These colleagues were already successful and were ready to help without
expectation of gain, though I always tried to thank them. Just be honest with others and yourself to ensure you get the best advice.
Rely on legal resources online.
We relied on legal templates and a number of contracts from a few reputable legal portals. These probably weren't the safest solutions, but they were a safety net for building functional contractual templates to minimize our risks at a minimal cost. We were fortunate to never have these legal templates fail us. In the last few years, our attorneys were actually content with most existing contract templates we had in place and submitted few revisions.
Plan not to have a vacation for a few years.
Seriously, for the first year, I had to set alarms to wake up every night to manually run time-sensitive tasks. I could not travel anywhere without a reliable internet connection and would only fly outside of continental U.S. business hours. Fortunately, it is easier to
have a reliable internet connection nowadays. Still, there is really no concept of "unplugging."
Never lose sight of the beginning.
At times, it can seem like the easy solution is to throw money at a problem or outsource a solution that you are most adept to solve. At the same time, you only have so many hours in the day.
Based in Austin, Texas, BidPrime launched in 2009 with the mission to better consolidate state and local government bids and RFPs to provide a clear and timely window into government purchasing. The company uses proprietary technology and data mining software dedicated to gathering government bids, contracts, and awards in real-time, and backed by best in industry client support and bid documents.
