4. Thou Shalt Not Rent An Office

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on April 29, 2007

Link: 20 startup tips

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As Dane points out, working from home usually costs you nothing to start and no rent. Here are my own tips for working at home with some helpful comments by readers. And for more ideas, check out Noel Bautista's blog on the Creative Weblogging Network.

Greg Gianforte, founder of the bootstrapped $30 million RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, Montana ran the company:

...first in Gianforte's home, then in a windowless room in the back of a real estate agency, and later in a former elementary school.

A Feb. 2002 article on the entrepreneur at Inc.com explains:

The same approach will work for bootstrappers outside the software industry...Say a would-be entrepreneur wants to open a retail store... Don't sink capital into leasing space and ordering inventory. Instead, reach out to customers from day one. Advertise the kinds of products that you plan to offer, hand out flyers, put up a sign. Keep it cheap. If you get orders, that's when you rent the storefront.

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