Today (Sunday, Dec. 20th) they are giving away a product which is perfect for Social Bootstrappers, Information Marketers, Thought Leaders, and probably all sorts of other people.

Cover Commander creates graphic images of books, CDs, DVDs, screen shots, etc. You know those pictures of a book with a CD next to it that they use on sales letters and conversion pages? That’s what this does! You can upload your own images for the cover, and then it puts it into a 3D picture with a shadow and a reflection and a picture of a CD. It’s Awesome.

Obviously, you could do this better in Photoshop, but you certainly couldn’t do it faster. And you can’t beat free. I’ve already downloaded and installed it.

You should, too.

If you missed the giveaway, you can buy Cover Commander here.
(Note: I am not an affiliate of Cover Commander)

Bootstrapping, of course!

I hang out with a lot of lawyers, VC types, serial entrepreneurs, tech people, etc… When I go to networking events or roundtable discussions, I often hear people ask about getting funding. Sometimes they mean SBA loans, usually they mean venture capital- always they mean, “How can I build this business with other people’s money?” I think, implicitly, they are saying, “How can I build this business without putting my personal lifestyle at risk? And, oh yeah- I’m broke.”

Too often, the VC experts in the room indulge the asker by talking about what the capitalists are looking for, and discussing terms and so forth. The “entrepreneurs” take notes. They go to networking/educational events to learn about business plan writing, term sheets, all that stuff…

Not often enough does someone say, “IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN FOR YOU!”

• You can’t get an SBA loan unless you’re mostly established, which you aren’t.
• You’re not going to get VC funding unless there’s a clear, multi-million dollar exit strategy, which you don’t have.
• Even if you could get either one of those thing (which you can’t), you shouldn’t anyway.

An infusion of cash is more likely to ruin your business than it is to help it. Think about what happens when people win the lottery. Same deal.

Bootstrap it!

Spend very little, reinvest, don’t hire, retain control. Ignore the motivational gurus who tell you to spend money you don’t need to spend. They are usually suggesting you spend money on them.

I’m not saying don’t spend anything, but think real hard: An online startup needs a great website design, but probably could forgo the fancy letterhead and branded notepads. Spending 100 hours to learn PHP so you can build a little function is probably a waste- hire someone. Hiring someone to do basic data entry because you “value your time too much” is probably a waste- skip CSI:Miami and do it yourself.

And learn how to sell for goodness sake. Remember, the one, single reason for a business to exist is to sell something to someone. Large infusions of cash are likely to remove that understanding. Worse, hanging around VC startups and VC people can also skew your thinking on this matter. Complicated business plans obscure the point, too.

Bootstrapping forces you to realize that if you aren’t selling something you aren’t in business.

So, what now?

Stop reading blogs for the day and go work. By work, I mean, “Sell something.”
Use the money from that sale to buy/build the next thing you can sell.

That’s bootstrapping.

PS- I was inspired to write this post after reading this excellent post about Bootstrapping. You should read it too. It’s short, and has several great Bootstrapping tips.

What is Bootstrapping?

Bootstrapping is using your limited amount of a resource to generate more of the same resource while fueling an endeavor that both requires and creates more of that resource.

The easiest example is the one you are familiar with: I have a little but of money, but not much. I specifically make choices with my money designed to create increase the amount of money I have, usually as quickly as possible. I do that by building a business that will consume more and more money, and generate even more and more money, as time goes on.

I use the limited resource (a little bit of money) to generate just a little bit more, and reinvest that little bit more. Over and over, while building something that will eventually generate ongoing revenue.

That is Financial Bootstrapping. It is the most commonly recognized and celebrated form of Bootstrapping, but it certainly isn’t the only variety.

Technical Bootstrapping

You probably have some amount of technical/computer skill. If you can read and use Google, you can leverage that minor skill into understanding how almost anything works. The number of Bootstrapped steps from “competence” to “Tech God” isn’t as many as you think.

Social Bootstrapping

This is what LinkedIn is all about (and Social Media in general). Surely you have a few friends. Rather than complaining that you only have a few friends, make it a point to use those few friends to make more friends. The more time you spend socializing, the better you become at it, so it becomes easier and easier to make more and more friends.

Time Bootstrapping

You only have one free half-hour a day? Instead of spending it on TV or reading stupid blogs, why not spend it doing something that will help free up more time in the future? Cleaning and organizing, automating certain tasks, creating email filters, meal planning. You’ll create extra time, and develop the habits that create even more time.

Wellness/Energy Bootstrapping

Too tired/lazy/fat/out-of-shape to exercise? What can you do that you’re not doing now? You can probably take a walk around the house. Then maybe in a few weeks a walk around the block. A lot of people understand the gradual nature of fitness, but they don’t usually connect it with Bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping is the way to go in almost any endeavor, because you have to constantly be on the right track. You can tell if things are working or not. The opposite of Bootstrapping is “Throw a lot of [other resource] at it.” Usually money, but it could be time or social capital as well. In that approach, it’s hard to tell if you’re on the right track because you’ll always get some kind of result if you throw a lot of resources at a problem, but you might just be creating a sink for resources.

There are certainly other types of Bootstrapping, and lots of examples of hybrids (usually time/money). How are you bootstrapping your business?

The comics in this post come from the funniest webcomic in the world, XKCD.