As we've explained in previous posts, starting with nothing or with whatever you have is part of the bootstrapping approach to entrepreneurship. Here, from Inc.com, are three bootstrappers who went above and beyond to build their start-ups.

1. Allen Shatto and his wife sold clover seed, beef and custom made crafts to raise money for the start-up phase of Shatto's chemical engineering consultant firm. In the end, the $3,000 they made was not invested in the business, but kept food on the couple's table during the lean start-up period.

2. Mike Hosford and Kevin Mullendore used a combined $300 and a borrowed desk and phone for their $150 a month office to launch a PC computer service firm and focused on retail business only in the beginning to get the cash they needed to stay afloat.

3. Electrical engineer Ghanshyam Patel built a $35-million long distance telephone services company with $4,000 in investment by picking up 400 customers from a bankrupt provider and finagling $500,000 worth of the defunct company's equipment for a fraction of the cost.

Each entrepreneur's story and resources differ. Bootstrap start-up guru Greg Gianforte got his Montana-based software firm under way by selling a product that hadn't even been developed yet.

In the next half dozen posts we'll look at how bootstrapping can be done and relay the stories of those who have done it successfully. But remember, no two stories are the same just as no two entrepreneurs are the same. The key to the bootstrapping approach is creativity and ingenuity.

I hope the following posts lend some inspiration.