Bootstrapping:  The Fad That Works

Bootstrapping a business is back in style, and what a style! Fast thinking, fast connecting, fast response create an unbelievable business support system.


Sometimes ideas are just so good they get replicated in spite of themselves. The Bootstrap Network is just one such group. They have absolutely refined the art of bootstrapping.

At its most basic, the Bootstrap Group is a super support group. "Super" as in above and beyond all reason. But it is truly much more than that.

In an age of information overload, a new style of networking is getting entrepreneurs' attention. Unlike most business groups, the Bootstrap Network emerged organically, starting with a few friends of an entrepreneur named Bijoy Goswami. Each of these entrepreneurs was running business on his own dime, bootstrapping it -- a tactic far more common that most of us admit. In under three years the Bootstrap Network grew to more than 500 members in Austin, Texas, and inspired similar bootstrapping networks in ten other cities, and even some in other countries.

Why such rapid growth? Well, for one things, there's mercifully little bureaucracy or politics to slow a bootstrapping group down. Nor were members engaged in small talk or chit chat at monthly meetings.

No, these bootstrapping members are serious. They are connected via a Yahoo! e-mail group. Most leave the thread open on their monitors all day. Any time anyone needs anything, dozens of eyes see the question immediately. Do you know a good furniture store? Done. Have you used a good head hunter? Got one. How about an accountant who knows electrical engineering companies? Here's one.

For those entrepreneurs who typically find themselves on a desert island when major decisions need to be made, the Bootstrap Group is an absolute blessing.

This is no chat room. Discussions are limited to advice, ideas and encouragement amongst the bootstrapping members.

Sometimes, midst the glamour of venture capital and angel investors, we forget that well over 90% of the new businesses got their start by bootstrapping. And it is organizations like the Bootstrap Group that make it possible for many of them to become truly successful.

You may peek in on the Bootstrap Group Blog.  

If there isn't a bootstrapping group in your area, perhaps it is time to start one. The payback is phenomenal!

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Jasmine McAllister
Business Finance Specialist


 

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