Blogger Guy Kawasaki promotes bootstrapping as an alternative to big financial backing. He even suggests that too much financing when starting out could be a bad thing. Here are some crucial principals he recommends for those without the backing of a big venture capital fund or angel investor.

• Focus on cash flow, not profitability...If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue.
• Forecast from the bottom up. Don't start by figuring how many of the 150 million cars in America are likely to get your new satellite radio system installed this year, but calculate instead how many systems a finite number of service centers can install over the same period.
• Ship, then test...When your product or service is "good enough," get it out because cash flows when you start shipping.
• Forget the "proven" team...Hire young, cheap, and hungry people.
• Start as a service business. You can provide consulting and other services to bring in revenue while that new software product is still in development.
• Focus on function, not form...All the chair has to do is hold your butt. It doesn't have to look like it belongs in the Museum of Modern Art.
• Pick your battles...If you're creating a content web site based on the advertising model, do you have to write your own customer ad-serving software? I don't think so.
• Understaff. 'Nuff said.
• Go direct...Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But God invented ecommerce so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins.
• Position against the leader...In the case of the Lexus, Guy notes Toyota didn't have to explain what "good as a Mercedes" meant.
• Take the "red pill." (Yeah, it's from "The Matrix") Guy suggests being realistic when calculating earnings and balancing them against expenses to determine how long the company can survive.

Read the rest of Guy's blog post here and check out the extensive comments.