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Bootstrapping Blog owner overview and article overview

Written on Monday, May 12th, 2008 | Bootstrapping Extras, Bootstrapping News | 3 Comments

Hello everyone. I wanted to take a minute to re-introduce myself for those of you who are new to the blog or do not know much about the owner (me) of this website yet. I also would like to point out some of the greater articles I’ve written in the past that you might not be aware of unless you’ve looked through all of our websites pages or searched the archives.

My name is Mike Smith and I am a small business owner. I have owned and operated a couple very small (I mean so small you’d never even know they existed unless I told you) businesses in the past. After struggling for many years (about 4 to be exact) I started reading some great material and really focusing in on running a successful small business. I started my blog design company, Blog Theme Machine back in October 2007 and am looking forward to hitting my 1 year mark with it very soon! It has been very successful and has allowed me to live with it as my only source of income which is great.

I started this blog about the same time to share my ideas and tips on what I’ve learned over the past few years, from reading books like “Bootstrapping Your Business” and “Guerrilla Marketing” to reading blogs like Freelance Switch and Zen Habits. All I hope for is that someone reading this blog finds the proper tools to grow their small business into something they are proud of without having to go through the heartache that I have.

I am very easy to get in contact with and love hearing from my readers. It lets me know that I’ve done something right and that means a lot to me. I also love seeing comments (so comment! - really, I love it and I comment back) If you need to get in touch with me, the contact form on the bootstrapping blog contact page sends mail directly to me and I will write you back as soon as possible. If you’d like to chat via AIM or another form of Instant Messenger, just let me know in the email and I’ll send you my details.

So, enough about me

Below are some links to some of the earliest articles written on this blog that I think you will really enjoy. Definitely something to look over when you have some spare time. If you see something you like or have a question about, leave a comment and I’ll comment back (See, I told you I love comments) You can also request further discussion in new articles that grow on an old article if you’d like. I’m always open to suggestions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and getting to know me, what I do and why I do it a little bit better. I hope the above articles bring some light into your days as a small business owner. Remember, bootstrapping isn’t for everyone but it sure is for YOU! Drive, Dedication and Determination can get you anything so please don’t ever forget that!

If you’re enjoying the content I’m providing, why not subscribe so you can get email updates or feed reader updates? It’s free and every time I post on this website, you’ll be notified (I only post once every other day so don’t worry about being flooded with emails/feed notifications).

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Will Smith’s Two Keys to Life

Written on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | Bootstrapping Extras | 6 Comments

Wondering why you should be listening to the “fresh prince” about the keys to life? I’ll tell you why. Will Smith has an interesting video on youtube where he explains to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards audience his two keys to life. After talking about Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness in the Don’t let anyone (and I mean anyone) steal your dreams article I wrote, I seen this video in Leo from Zen Habits‘ link tumblr page. Watching the video really had me think about things a bit and in this article I want to touch on the two keys he mentions and talk about what I think about each, and why I think these are two real keys to life.

Running is the first key to life

In the video, Will explains that the reason for this is because when you run, you have this little voice in your head that tells you “I’m too tired, I have to stop running. If I only walk for a second I will regain my composure and can run again. I wish I could just sit down” (paraphrased in my own words). He says that if you can conquer this voice when running, you can conquer this voice in anything that you do in life.

I couldn’t agree more. Regardless of the way you want to give the analogy, that voice in your head, which is based on fear, doubt and insecurity, will run your life until the day you die if you do not learn to conquer it early on. Running is definitely a great way to overcome this voice and has many benefits.

The Benefits of Running

Will Smith touches on the fact that overcoming the voice telling you to stop when you are running is the reason why running is beneficial and I don’t disagree with him but there are many other benefits as well.

Health Benefits - I put this first because I figured since most people like to skip over this fact of life, I wanted to make it stand out more here. RUNNING or ANY FORM OF EXERCISE is a great health benefit. Not only will running help you keep the weight off but it is also great for stamina. At the risk of saying too much, I will just say that stamina is a great thing for any man out there and you should pay attention to it more. (Sorry ladies if you found that offensive - contact me and tell me you did).

Running will also help your lungs open up which improves your breathing and good breathing can be very beneficial to concentration and relaxation. Ask anyone who meditates or does breathing exercises and they will tell you the same thing. Try it and I bet you’ll see the great results.

Freeing Your Mind - I know a lot of people talk about how walking helps them to relax their mind and free their thoughts. The same goes for running. When you run, you can think about many things but for some reason, to me at least, it seems to help me not ‘think’ about much at all, in the sense that I am not stressed about the things I think about. I actually get a lot of great ideas when I am jogging/running and always carry a tablet of paper and a pen with me. The writing might be horrible but I can read it so thats all that matters.

Anyone who is in business for themselves can comment on this and say that their life is at times a bit more stressful then they’d like. Running is a great way to remove a bit of that stress and free your mind for greater things. Looking at a screen all day will make things start to look like tunnel vision, so running is a great way to release some of those things and see life in a better light.

Reading is the second key to life

Will Smith then goes on to explain that reading is the second key to life and again, I don’t doubt that for a second. Anyone who is successful in business will have at least ONE good book they’ve read that helped put them in the right mindset or on the right track to making their dreams come true. I read Bootstrapping Your Business and that influenced me to start Bootstrapping Blog and write about the art of bootstrapping.

Anything you can read from Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, or Benjamin Franklin will give you so much knowledge for life and business that you’d be upset you hadn’t read it earlier. Reading not only solves problems you might be going through, as Will Smith talked about, but it gives you a few more benefits as well.

Knowledge is Power - OK, I know everyone has read or wrote this phrase more than once in their life but it’s the truth. When you know more, you can do more. When you understand laws after you read a law book or study in law school, or study a CSS design book, when you are done reading, you will by far know more then you did before you read the book. The same goes with great blogs like Zen Habits, Pro Blogger, Skelliewag and Freelance Switch.

You’ll have the power to do so many more things in business and in life after you read these blogs and authors.

A good real-life example of this is that before I read the zen habits tumblr page, I didn’t know anything about this video or that Will Smith even said these things, but now, I am writing this very post because of it Knowledge does indeed give you power.

Better Communication - When you read, you will learn proper grammar (if the person writing it displays it, that is) and will learn a vast amount of new words. These skills will help you out in every day conversations with family, friends or co-workers. Your friends will laugh, or stare at you funny if you use some larger words in a conversation and they are the type to use a lot of slang terms or are the “myspace crowd” so-to-speak. I get a kick out of putting a 5 syllable word into a sentence instead of a 4-5 letter word just to play with people, its fun.

If you are in business for yourself, you normally are the name and face of your business and if you come off to your clients as ignorant or less-educated, you will surely lose many potential jobs and sales. I’ve seen many sales pitches with grammar mistakes that shouldn’t have been made, by writers who were selling their freelance writing services. This is unacceptable and easily avoided by reading more and learning more.

Why Will Smith is a Genius

Normally, people will give you some B.S. approach to succeeding in life, wrapping a cheap e-book page around it and slapping a $100.00 price tag on it while you have legitimate success stories (yes, I consider Will Smith a success story in himself) who give out great knowledge like this for free every day. All you have to do is open your eyes and ears while closing your mouth. Pay attention, you’ll thank me for it later…

Am I the only one that listens to what Will Smith and other stars say and grab the useful information from it like this?

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Our top 10 favorite articles of 2007

Written on Friday, December 28th, 2007 | Bootstrapping Extras | Be the first to comment

The year is coming to an end and everything becomes hectic for anyone celebrating holidays or trying to get together a list of business resolutions for the new year. This didn’t pass me by and I’ve been running around like crazy these past couple weeks. I wanted to end off the year with a best of 2007 post, highlighting some of the best content on the site for those who might be new to the site, or some of you who haven’t had the chance to look around the entire site yet.

Feel free to drop a comment if you liked a post on this site and it isn’t featured on the list. Please note these articles are not listed in any specific order.

See you in 2008

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The Hidden Benefits of Bootstrapping

Written on Monday, December 17th, 2007 | Bootstrapping Extras | 8 Comments

Yesterday, I read an article posted at Bootstrap Me entitled: “Bootstrapping Brings Competitive Advantage” and it really got me thinking, so I wanted to make a post about it here today. As bootstrappers, we’re often times faced with the doubters and non-believers who will constantly tell us that we’re unable to accomplish what we set out to do because we lack the connections, or the funds, or some X factor that is what they believe to make a business BOOM. I believe the exact opposite from what they believe and know that you should too.

In this article, I want to cover a little bit about what Shawn Hessinger talks about in his article and also touch on some points I believe should be discussed. Feel free to drop me a comment at the end of this article and let me know your thoughts as well. I’d love to hear them.

Creativity will shine in the bootstrapper

When dealing with a multi-national, well funded company that has 1,000 employees and 10 bank loans, the odds of anyone in their business straying from the old path their owner told them to use is slim-to-none. For the bootstrapper, we strive on the wooded, unchartered land that we walk through on a daily basis to make it to the other side. Our creativity is something that no one can take from us and a great gift that we have.

Regardless if you’re creating a guerrilla marketing campaign or trying to figure out what not to do when talking to a client, you’re using your creativity and thinking outside the box and the results with show that doing this boost sales to a higher percentage; much higher then a traditional sales and marketing approach. Plus, we have fun when we’re being creative, so work doesn’t seem like work to us.

Less room for error brings better results

Lets face it, if you have 2 months to complete a project, the odds of you finishing in the first week are very slim. At the same time, if you’ve got a 2 day deadline, I bet that the same project could be completed. Why? When bootstrappers know that there’s something to be done and it has to be done quick, we’re right on it and putting in the work needed to complete it quickly. We don’t have the luxury that big corporations have when dealing with product deadlines and promoting our company.

I know from experience that I can design websites in a matter of 2 days and make around $1,000 dollars. Yes, there’s more work time involved in a short period, and a bit more stress, but there are a lot of times that those same jobs can linger on for a week. When faced with a deadline, or the thought of knowing you’re the only person that can get the job done, bootstrapping becomes a driving force behind some super-charged work and really benefits the bootstrapper.

While we’re in our offices (spare bedrooms, garage, basement or other make-shift office) putting in 10-14 hour days on sales, customer service, product building and promoting, the big exec. in his high-end office is relaxing far too much and letting his/her employees get away with far too much slacking off on the job. As bootstrappers, we don’t have a second chance when creating our product. We don’t have 20,000 dollars to toss away on T.V. promotion campaigns that don’t work. So, with the added pressure, comes better, and faster results.

Bootstrapping a business gives a greater amount of flexibility

When you accept a big loan from an external source, you become a slave to their thoughts, ideas and plans. You no longer have your own way of doing things because you have to run every decision by them first. Bootstrapping is about unconventional thinking, split second decision making and doing things against the grain of normal businesses, so adding an external funding source to the mix only complicates the true essence of the bootstrapper.

Doing things your own way, on your own time and at your own pace is one of the main reasons people leave their 9-5 jobs and start their own business. The majority of the time, these same people will end up taking bank loans to fund their start-ups and wind up in the same mindless cycle they were leaving to begin with. Why put yourself through that?

For instance, I am up at 2am right now writing this article. Do you think that I could do that if I were writing for a company who had strict deadlines and time-frames they wanted me to work in? I also design late at night like this, partially because a lot of my work comes from overseas so I catch a lot of clients this way, but also because during the day, I find myself less focused and creative compared to during the night like this. If I wasn’t bootstrapping and doing things my way, I wouldn’t have the freedom to do these things.

Bootstrapping is supposed to be fun!

No matter what, always remember to have some fun when you’re bootstrapping your business. If not, you’ll end up hating your job and crawling back to your former employers, begging for your jobs back. None of us want that, and I don’t want to see anyone have to do that, so please, enjoy yourself. If you’re doing some crazy promotional work that is so out of the box, no one would believe it would work; smile while doing it. If you’re on the phone with a client, explaining how the new service you offer would benefit their family members; smile and laugh while doing it. Having fun will make life go by at a much smoother pace, regardless of the things happening around you.

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101 New Years Business Resolutions

Written on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 | Bootstrapping Extras | 10 Comments

It’s the time of year where everyone wants to make their resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking or some other stop some other random bad habit they have. Why don’t more people make resolutions for their business in the new year? Some might call them goals, I even wrote a post about great goals in 2008 but I am referring to resolutions in this article.

A resolution is, by definition:

1: the act or process of resolving: as a: the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones b: the act of answering : solving c: the act of determining d: the passing of a voice part from a dissonant to a consonant tone or the progression of a chord from dissonance to consonance

Below are 101 New Years Business Resolutions you can adopt for your business to ensure that you make the most out of your business in 2008. Why are they resolutions and not goals? All 101 resolutions in this list will solve a problem in your business (lack of money, lack of time, lack of promotion, ect).

Increase revenue by 10% each month
Create 1 guerrilla marketing campaign each month
Follow up with clients once per month
Network with other companies in my niche
Network with companies that compliment my niche (ie: web design / web hosting)
Give 5 free consultations
Create 1 viral marketing campaign each month
Build testimonials list for future clients to read
Create out-of-the-box ideas/designs for business cards
Appear larger on a smaller budget
Start saving pennies for a full year and spend the money on your business
Decrease hours worked each day while increasing profits
Attend at least 5 seminars or expo’s related to your niche
Adjust pricing for your products
Build a new product to add in to your current package
Add a new service to your current list of services you offer clients
Create 6 new contests as a marketing strategy
Register your company name
Write a book or guide for people in your niche
Donate at least 10% of your profits each month to charity
Get your company featured in local newspapers
Get your company featured on the local news television shows
Start a fusion marketing group (more on fusion marketing in a future article)
Create a subscriber/mailing list of 10,000 people by December 2008
Bloggers: Get 1,000 new RSS Subscribers each month
Add a sales team to sell for you
Hold 1-2 demonstrations for your service/product
Generate more word-of-mouth advertising
Bloggers: Guest Post on 2 blogs each month
Get your website to the top 5 results for a new keyword each month
Create a form of passive income
Double your client list
Find one extra client each month (ie: Jan - 6 clients, Feb - 7 clients, March - 8 clients)
Invest 10% of profits to growing your business
Invest 10% of profits for new equipment
Cut advertising costs by 25%
Go Green!
Bloggers: Become one of the top 100 make money online blogs
Bloggers: Get your blog featured on 5 of the top 100 make money online blogs
Be more friendly to the “not-so-nice” clients; even when it hurts your pride.
Become more reliable
Take as many risks as possible without letting yourself say no; even if you think its a crazy idea!
Think outside the box with advertising
Study your competition and find their weaknesses; capitalize on them
Have each of your friends generate 1 sale for you
Promote your product in 5 different states
Open a store for your product/service 1 other state
Benefit from local resources
Bloggers: Update your blog design at least once this year
Read 1 business related book each month
Participate in at least 2-3 discussions on message boards each month
Check emails less and close IM’s when working online
Reorganize your office space
Increase the response rate in your customer service team (or yourself)
Track the time you work better. (we recommend: slim timer)
Trust your gut feeling more
Bloggers: Mind map blog ideas for every day in 2008 (365 ideas won’t be hard with this method)
Sponsor an event in your community to clean up parks or recreation centers
Enter local business awards
Enter blogging awards
Enter web design awards or submit to CSS Galleries
Take a vacation (even if you sit at home for a week not working, it’s still good for business because if you don’t, you’ll burn out).
Hire 5 college students for various jobs (sales, customer service, cleaning, ect)
Invest money in each month to a new business you see becoming highly successful
Create all new promotional material (business cards, flyers, posters, bumper stickers, ect)
Spend more time with family and less time working on the weekends
Bloggers: Start 1 new blog every three months to build your network
Bloggers: Add different forms of revenue to your blogs
Allow affiliates to promote your products and services
Bloggers: Add 1 article daily, Monday-Friday and have auto posts setup for Saturday-Sunday.
Buy larger office space due to your company growing too big for the current office
Set up your own business expo for local businesses
Build website dedicated to your local business entrepreneurs (ie: yourstateentrepreneurs.com)
Be more consistent with daily work habits
Convert at least 10% of all cold-calls into sales each month
Increase website traffic by 10% each month
Increase pageviews for your website by 2 pages (1 page view per person - 3 page views per person)
Increase the time users spend on your website by 2 minutes
Find 10 unique ways to sell your product or affiliate sale in less then 2 minutes on your website
Double your search engine traffic every 3 months
If you haven’t already; submit a press release
Build or outsource 1 link bait survey/article each month
Get your entire staff (even if it is only yourself) healthier because healthier workers are happier and easier to be around
Earn enough money in 2008 that you can take an entire year off and travel
Build your passive income enough so in 2009 you can travel and still make money
Diversify your income streams on and offline
Bloggers: Aim at making $500.00 per month from Private Ad sales
Study the power of social media marketing and create 4 campaigns to run in 2008 on social media sites
Subscribe to 5 magazines that relate to your niche and study successful businesses inside them
Dare to be different; find what your niche is missing and fill in the gap
Find 5 ways to brand your company (or yourself if you freelance or bootstrap your own business)
Offer holiday sales for the major three holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years)
Hire a PR team to give you an added boost of exposure
Bloggers: Hire front-page digg pushers to get your articles to the front page of digg.
Create a trend. John Chow and Shoemoney had their blogs redesigned and now EVERYONE wants the three box look.
Give 10% earnings for one month to a children’s college fund. Someone in your family, or a random child at a local school
De-clutter your entire business inside and out
Downsize your staff if profits aren’t as great as they should be
If downsizing your staff isn’t an option, then find 10 ways to downsize your expenses
Re-negotiate with all affiliate companies you promote for better rates
RETIRE! Hey, if it’s that time in your life, sell the business off and spend the rest of your life doing nothing

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