According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within the first five years. Instead of snuffing your entrepreneurial candle and calling it quits though, all you need to is avoid one of the leading causes of these failed businesses. The evil enemy of many small and bootstrapped businesses? There’s a good chance it’s excessive spending and ill-planned budget-blowing campaigns. If you’re like most individuals working from home, then you’ve probably got a bootstrapped budget.

But let’s get one thing straight right now: you do not need to spend a lot to make a lot! We know…this is sheer genius, so we understand if you need to take a second to absorb that. Okay, so maybe this idea isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but the actual practice of spending a little to earn a lot is quickly becoming a lost art in today’s media- and marketing-hyped world. There are plenty of free to extremely low-cost solutions available to the small-business owner, so be sure to shop around before you grab for the marketing solution that glitters the brightest. Oh, what’s that you say? Don’t even have enough for a boot-strapped budget? Busy feeling sorry for yourself with mounting excuses? No problem! Just get medieval and barter.

Highest-income Producing Activities

Now, many small-business owners are tempted into handling as much as possible on their own in order to cut as many costs as possible. Sometimes, just sometimes, this is absolutely necessary. However, spreading yourself too thin dilutes the energy you should be putting into the major elements of your business. Ultimately, your business may be able to tread water in this fashion, but you’ll probably never actually reach the shoreline. The first thing you need to do then is write out a list of your core capabilities; what you’re best at.

This will help you stay focused on your highest-income producing activities. In doing this, you can then decide which tasks you need help with. Take this a step further by creating a list of your associates, friends and existing contacts, writing down the main functions of what they do for a living, uncovering their core capabilities. Not sure what they’re best at? All you need to do is ask them—people like talking about themselves and tend to know more about themselves than you do! And once you get a steady bead on each other’s core capabilities, you’ll be able to offer those in exchange for each other’s services. For example, let’s say you you’re a polished, proficient copywriter, but have no idea how to design a site and definitely don’t have the cash flow for it. You would then offer to write Web content for them in exchange for a Web site design. No money is exchanged, yet equal services are still delivered. None of your contacts need copywriting? Hard to believe, but if that’s the case, then get creative with your barter, such as offering anything from babysitting their kids to helping them install a new fence in their backyard.

Our cutting-edge technology and corporate America influences have us believing that bartering is a dead practice. Not true my bootstrapped brethren!