Show me the money

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on April 4, 2008

A member of the senior management team uttered this phrase recently at a staff meeting, conjuring images of actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s iconic Rod Tidwell in the Tom Cruise film Jerry McGuire.

The upshot? Don't just tell me something is a good idea or is working well for us. Show me the money we've made from it.

The same goes for business.

In his post "20 Things Not To Do Before Starting a Business" on the Business Opportunity Weblog, Dane Carlson explains:

I advise everyone that asks me, and some that don't, not to quit their day job until they have actually gone out, talked to potential buyers and had someone they didn't already know pay for their product or service.

The benefit of the bootstrapping approach is that since revenue alone is often used to grow the business taking big financial risks without being certain of the return is pretty much impossible.

In this way, bootstrapping helps by:
• Focusing on revenue first instead of investment as a way to build business
• Centering on establishment of a working business model instead of a theoretical business plan
• Using earnings rather than outside investment to grow a business thus realigning re-investment along practical financial lines
• Replacing the business idea with the operating business model as the cornerstone of company building
In the next post, we'll examine how simple free on line tools make some of the simplest forms of content into business opportunities, generating profit with little more than investment of time and ingenuity...