A quick comparison between the bootstrapping and deep pocket — fast burn strategies on how to start a business

By: Sprigley Allan, SDSU ‘11
Every year, over eight million entrepreneurs start businesses in the United States alone. Each one of these businesses needs an energetic entrepreneur, a strong work ethic, and a great idea but what they may not need is money. In the world of entrepreneurship, there are two potential approaches on the best way to finance a start—up. These are the bootstrap and the deep pocket — fast burn strategies.

Bootstrapping is for the entrepreneur that wants to spend as little money as possible to launch his/her venture quickly to see if the market exists for their product. This is a direct opposite of the deep pocket — fast burn strategy. This strategy is essential for companies that require large sums of money to be initially invested product marketing, advertising and product research and development before the product even reaches the market.

In today’s economic environment, it is becoming more difficult and time consuming to find large amounts of capital for new entrepreneurs and unproven products or services. However, this is no reason not to start your company now. With major companies maintaining a low profile to survive the current “storm” and additional talent now available, the time is perfect for new and adaptable companies to step in and thrive.

Bootstrapping allows for an entrepreneur to start a business without having to put themselves in a tremendous amount of debt and keeps them from giving up too much equity. Along with bootstrapping their business, the best thing a new entrepreneur can do is to make use of all the resources available.

Among the most powerful tools available on the internet are:

• United States Small Business Administration
  This government funded and government run program can assist in all stages of starting a small business. Some of the 100’s of tools that their website provides are tools for writing a business plan, finding funding both in grants and connecting companies with investors both on a local and national scale.
• Weebly
  This is a FREE, easy way to start marketing your product on the internet and generating some interest.
• PayPal
  PayPal was itself started in 1998 by an entrepreneur in the attempt to provide a quick, inexpensive and user friendly mechanism for e-commerce.It is still one of the easiest ways to accept credit card payments securely online.
• The Best Things in Life Are Free
  A comprehensive list of FREE online business resources that come in handy whether you are a bootstrapped company low on funds or simply a cost conscious CEO looking for affordable alternatives to brand named products.

This strategy is essential for companies that require large sums of money to be initially invested in marketing, advertising and product research and development before the product even reaches the market.