fbpx

10 Financial Mistakes to Avoid When Bootstrapping Your Startup

If you're ready to bootstrap your next startup, here are some essential personal and business finance "rules of the road" to follow along the way.

Prev2 of 2Next
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse

6. Stay on top of record keeping.

Entrepreneurs tend to not like the accounting/numbers aspect of their business because it is not as fun or “sexy” as the product building or rainmaking – but it is crucial as a thermometer to the business health. Too many great entrepreneurs with great ideas fail because they simply were not financially feasible.

– W. Michael Hsu, Founder and CEO at Deep Sky Co: @DeepSkyCo

 

7. Check out your funding options.

Most people assume that financial help only comes in the form of formal investors or your individual self. It’s a very either/ or philosophy. In fact, there are many options to get money into your business: crowdfunding, strategic alliances for resources or in-kind products/ services that equate to real money, and non-financial investors such as incubators, public and non-profit supporters of entrepreneurship, and corporate foundations.

– Caroline Ceniza-Levine, Career and Business Coach at SixFigureStart LLC: @SixFigureStart

 

8. Don’t underestimate time and money.

Business owners underestimate the amount of expenses and time it takes to set up the business and the length of time it takes to start seeing a meaningful return on their investment. Thus it is always good to provision or double the time and effort it takes in terms of investment and double the time it takes to start seeing some meaningful cash flow to analyze the viability of the business idea.

– Rohit Arora, CEO and Co-Founder at Biz2Credit: @biz2credit

 

9. Adapt if necessary.

The #1 mistake entrepreneurs make when bootstrapping their business is having an aversion to change. As a business owner it is vital to be in tune within your industry and be flexible and willing to change with the trends and the market. Don’t hold on too tightly to any idea or formula.

– Ryan Evans, President at Rand Media Group: @RyanEvans

 

10. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

In other words, don’t take everyone’s advice or take on more expense than is absolutely necessary to get things rolling- viably. How to get things done more economically should be the mantra of any entrepreneur. If more business owners took the time to shave their expenses down,they would find that they could get much more done for much less.

– Jeff Milano, CEO at The People’s Chemist: @Peopleschemist

Prev2 of 2Next
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse
 

© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.

   

In this article