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To continue with Montreal, Quebec-based entrepreneur and self-described "opportunity seeker and instigator" Ben Yoskovitz's practical no-nonsense list of things to remember when bootstrappping your business, Ben suggests:

5. Watch your partners carefully.

Ben points out that even in small companies group dynamics can often be problematic, like the time he found out one of the IGotNewsForYou crew was trying to book an overseas flight on a company expense account Ben didn't even know his company had.

It's a humorous story, but a similar one I could relate about a business partner trying to push me out of a company that didn't even exist yet is just plain ludicrous. So many other challenges await the entrepreneur of a bootstrap start-up and personality issues with partners and co-workers should not be among them. I've made it a personal policy to go it alone and take on partners and other help only as needed.

6. Network, network, network.

It's important, important, important. In the world of digital marketing where few bootstrappers will be able to afford traffic campaigns, advertising or premium search engine placement in the beginning it will be the difference between life and death. About all this back scratching business, I'll leave it to Ben.

7. Find resources online to help you.

Ben mentions The Business of Software, but really there are so many resources for free information and free services online it's staggering. I'm planning a bootstrapper's resource list to be made available to readers of this blog in the near future, so stay tuned.

8. Be prepared to do things you don't like doing or don't know how to do.

Marketing, accounting, business management, sales, customer support, research, partner agreements, legal, etc. The list is endless. And sure you can outsource this work but that costs money, and you don't have any remember?

(When you get depressed just think about all the things they asked you to do back when you were working for someone else.)

9. Be prepared for the long haul, but enjoy the challenge.

Very few businesses kick off and make millions right away, most take a lot of time and hard work. Most small businesses fail (which sucks). But you won't fail, and neither will we, and throughout all of the hard work, long hours and meetings spent watching my partners eat more doughnuts than most Tim Horton's make in a day, I'll enjoy it all.

Check out some of Ben's entrepreneurial projects here including IGotNewsForYou, a way to e-mail joke news pages to your friends, Where Is Basil?, a community building blog project and The Great Big Small Business Show podcast, for which he is a contributor.