Scalability

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on October 12, 2006

Take a look at Wikipedia's definition of scalability. Here's just a portion:

In telecommunications and software engineering,...a desirable property of a system, a network or a process, which indicates its ability to either handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner, or to be readily enlarged...An analogous meaning is implied when the word is used in a commercial context, where scalability of a company implies that the underlying business model offers the potential for economic growth...

Then compare this with our working definition of bootstrapping:

Simply put, bootstrapping is any one of various processes in which simple systems are used to create more complex ones.

(Here's the rest).

You can easily see the two are a perfect fit.

But what's interesting is that even entrepreneurs seeking to create, invest in or acquire a Venture Capital funded company with plenty of money behind it see this quality as a virtue. (See the fifth of Fabrice Grinda's business selection criteria. Specifically, he explains:)

Walmart and Starbucks are great businesses, but I would rather not be in a business where I need to open a new store to increase my sales as it leads to slower growth and greater capital requirements.

Still, I maintain that a scalable idea is particularly crucial in the bootstrap approach and is the reason advocates of the practice insist there is no limit to the size of company that can be built by bootstrapping.

When developing the idea for our own soon to be launched bootstrap enterprise here at BootStrapMe.com, scalability remains a critical factor. A business that can be grown in an almost limitless number of ways was the goal.

Compared to the traditional business plan process where every capacity is anticipated from day one and funded from the beginning, coming up with a simple but scalable idea to which many ideas can be added is a spontaneous and uncluttered approach.

And for bootstrappers who will have money to fund very little in the beginning but have big dreams of a multifaceted company or product in the future, it is an absolute necessity.