The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS INCLUDES: A Workbook and 100 Startup ideas (that require less or no capital) Founding Editor of Wealth Ladder Magazine BETHMALATJI
CopyrightCopyright © 2016 Beth MalatjiAll rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced orused in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of thepublisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.Research assistants by Aya Williams and Olivia ThomasBook and Cover design by Amit PratapEditing and Proofreading by Carine SandersAuthor photograph by SoulsecuredISBN: 9780620739443Ordering information beth@wealthladdermagazine.com0110216470www.wealthladdermagazine.com The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 01
Contents Introduction 03 Generating an Idea 04 Naming 05 Market Research 06 Forms and Surveys 07 Mockups and Wireframes 08 Design 09 Development 10 Deployment 11 Social tools 12 MVP 13 Marketing 14 Early users 15 Presentations 16 Product demo 17 Launching 18 Analytics 19 Mobile (app) analytics 20 Customer support 21 Project management 22Collaboration and Communication 23 Productivity 24 Feedback and Bugtracking 25 Building Websites 26 Branding and Logos 27 Art 28 Invoicing 29 Ecommerce 30 Payments 31 Outsourcing 32 Raising Capital 33 Investor relations 34 Sales 35 CRM 36 Legal and Compliance 37 Finance 38 HR 39 Learning 40 Books 41 Videos and TV shows 42 Newsletters 43 Articles to read 44 Workbook 45 Startup ideas 48 References 51 Special Thanks 52 The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 02
IntroductionGetting funding for a startup seems like the obvious choice. Building an assetwith someone else’s money is generally perceived as ideal because there’smore of it with lower risk. Funding is one of the biggest challenges mostentrepreneurs face. Whether they take out loans, crowdfund or acceptinvestments, startup founders often find that they need some kind of outsidefinancing to make their business dreams a reality.But some entrepreneurs choose to self-fund their operations, investingtheir own money into the business. This is known as bootstrapping, and if youhave the resources to do it, you will benefit from completefinancial and creative control over your business. There are no equitystakeholders demanding that you move in a certain direction, or lenders lookingfor their loan payments each month.The downside, of course, is that your business budget is dictated byyour own personal finances. Bootstrappers are on the hook for every last centinvested in the business, and without the right financial management skills, youcould end up driving yourself into serious debt.As an entrepreneur who has invested significantly in my own startup, I believethat bootstrapping is the best option. It’s never easy, and it’s not alwaysglamorous, but bootstrapping will force you to become a better, strongerentrepreneur with a more vibrant business.This book has all the free or less expensive valuable online tools that will helpyou to scale, if you don't get - or don't want VC funding.Depending on your startup type, I recommend searching pretty aggressively fora free alternative before you pay money for any service. Some are more obvious,others fairly unusual, but each can be extremely useful for startups. Onesurprising element I have added is some info where startups can acquirefunding successfully. It's just my way of saying, I hold no grudges against thefunding route, however, as a startup, you do not have to raise funds externally.Be in total control of your business adventures.EnjoyBeth Malatji The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 03
Generating an ideaGreat business ideas are all around you. Just open yourself to thepossibilities, and you're bound to find a winner. The big challenge ofgenerating great ideas is freeing yourself from the conventional,mundane thoughts that occupy most of your brain time.Curator: The No.1 tool for the creative process. From the first fragment of anidea to presentation. Simple, fast, powerful.Elevatr: A fast, beautiful, and fun way to capture, organize, and sharebusiness ideas.Experiment Board: Test your startup idea without wasting time or money.Germ.io: Get from idea to execution.Mindmeister: Because of its sleek design and simple interface, mindmeisterhas been positioned as the number one mind mapping tool available today.Skitch: Get your point across with fewer words using annotation, shapes andsketches, so that your ideas become reality faster.Stache: Makes it quick and easy to collect pages you find useful, interestingor inspiring, in a visual and fully searchable library.Xmind: A more elegant way to gather, analyze and utilize knowledge,information and ideas. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 04
Business/ Project Name GeneratorsIt’s not easy to name a business. The name has to convey the rightmessage and generate interest. Trademark issues must be consideredand most importantly, you need to develop the right marketing strategyfor the name you’ve chosen.Domainr: Fast, free, domain name search, short URLs.Domain Bot: Turning ideas into names.Hipster Business Name: Hipster business name generator.Impossibility: The best domain name generator ever.Instant Domain Search: Quickly check specific domain availability.Lean Domain Search: Find a domain name for your website in seconds.Namecheap: Register your domains without getting screwed.Naminum: Discover a perfect company name.Panabee: Business name generator and domain search.Short Domain Search: Find short, available single-word domain names.The Name App: Find an available name for your brilliant idea.Wordoid: Pick a short and catchy name for your business. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 05
Market ResearchMarket research is vitally important to the success of any business.Understanding your market is key to ensuring that you provide the rightgoods and the right services. Business reporting solutions can enable youto collect data on goods and services that your business provides,meaning that you can truly see who is buying what.Buzzsumo: Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor.Feedly: Compiles news feeds from a variety of online sources for the user tocustomize & share.Google Trends: A new way of displaying trending searches.Hubspot Blog Topic Generator: Custom blog ideas.Portent: Content idea generator.Ruzzit: Find the most shared content on the web.Swayy: Discover the most engaging content. Free for 1 dashboard user.Others: Google+ | What’s Hot | Twitter Trending | Quora | Reddit | The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 06
Forms and SurveysIt is possible to identify flaws in the running of your business throughresearch and surveys. Proper research will help you understand thetrends being used by your competitors and why some strategies do notbear positive results. Surveys, on the other hand, will help you understandyour customers better. Through this research, you will be able to knowwhat cripples the performance of your business and what can be done toimprove on that. In the long run, better business performance will beachieved.Batch: The first-ever 100% free engagement platform for mobile apps.Free Survey Creator: Create a survey. Get user feedback for free.Helprace: Customer service tool. Free for up to 3 agents for small supportteams.Tally: Create polls in no time.Typeform: Free beautiful online survey & form builder. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 07
Wireframes and MockupsIt might be easy to come up with a business idea, but the hard part isunderstanding how that idea will take shape in user interface form. It allbegins with an idea, but that idea needs user interface translation. It’s notenough to say, “I want an app that does X, Y and Z”. You need to knowwhat the user will see on each screen of your app to do X, Y and Z.Balsamiq: A wireframing tool to help rid the world of bad software.Concept.ly: A Web and Mobile mockups tool. Convert wireframes anddesigns into interactive Apps.Flinto: Creates iOS and Android prototypes made from your existing screendesigns.Gliffy: Create professional-quality flowcharts, Org charts, UML (UnifiedModeling Language) diagrams and more.Justinmind: A powerful wireframe software to define Web and mobileapplications.Lucidchart: A flow chart maker & online diagram software.MockFlow: Designs and collaborates on user interface concepts for yourapps and websites.Mockingbird: An online tool that makes it easy for you to create, linktogether, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.Moqups: The most stunning HTML5 app for creating resolution-independent SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) mockups & wireframes for yournext project.OmniGraffle: For creating beautiful, precise graphics. Available for Mac andiPad. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 08
DesignDesign-led companies invest heavily in powerful customer experiences –a key element to tackle if you want to get your customers’ attention andmotivate them to keep coming back. In other words, design benefitsbusiness in the sense that it helps you attain a solid understanding of themany ways that customers engage with your brand—from websites andsocial media to wearables, on every form factor and operating system.Crayon: The most comprehensive collection of marketing designs on theweb.Feedbag.io: Helps you collect feedback in a visual and user-friendly manner.InVision: Transform your Web & Mobile (iOS, Android) designs into clickable,interactive Prototypes and Mockups.Little Big Details: A curated collection of the finer details of design, updatedevery day.uiGIFs: Showcases new user interfaces in the form of animated GIFs. All ofthe apps showcased on the site are real, launched apps.UICloud: Collects the best user interface designs from the internet andprovides a search engine for you to find the best UI (User Interface) elementyou need.Pixate: Empowers you to create complex interactions, without thecomplexity. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 09
DevelopmentWe know that many new products do not succeed. Many products fail toever make it to the market, and for those that do, success is notguaranteed. Test and experiment throughout the product developmentprocess, from inception to production. Too often companies first design aproduct and then figure out a way to sell it. The ultimate success or failureof a product is defined by the customers’ willingness to pay for it.Research, experimentation, and testing should, therefore be incorporatedthroughout the product development process, rather than after theproduct has already been developed.Algolia: An instant search API (Application program interface) that allows anywebsite or mobile applications to offer the users a seamless and extremelyfast search experience.Coda: Everything you need to hand-code a website, in one beautiful app.DevDocs: Combines multiple API documentations in a fast, organized, andsearchable interface.Forest: Instantly provides you with a universal admin interface designed tomanage all your application data and business operations.GitLab: A web-based Git repository manager with wiki and issue trackingfeatures.MessageBird: Send SMS and voice messages worldwide via MessageBird'swebsite, email or your own software (API).PublicAPIs: The Largest API Directory In The Galaxy.ReadMe.io: Crowdsource your developer hub with ReadMe.io. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 10
DeploymentStartups are often done with a limited budget, so usually the wiser youspend the money, the more time you have to make a perfect product foryour market. Thus automation tests are a great way to save your time ondebugging your product and bring the highest quality.CircleCI: A simple, powerful Continuous Integration and Deployment fordevelopers.Codeship: Release more frequently, get faster feedback and build theproduct your users need.Deploy: Deploy your websites or apps directly from your repository to serversor the cloud.Divide.io: An open source backend library for mobile apps.Docker: An open platform for distributed applications that allows developersand IT administrators to build, ship and run applications anywhere.Engine Yard: Deploy, scale and monitor your app with the Engine Yard cloudapplication management platform.New Relic: A software analytics company that makes sense of 250 billiondata points daily from millions of applications.Pagoda Box: An Object Oriented Hosting Framework.The GitHub platform: Provides powerful collaboration, code review, andcode management for open source and private projects.Wercker: Test and deploy your applications with ease. Together, withWercker. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 11
Social ToolsA startup has to hustle to create buzz, or even be taken seriously byestablished companies. Social media is where a young company candistinguish itself as an expert in its field, rather than just a new competitor.Startups make waves by creating original, industry-relevant content anddispersing it through their chosen social media platforms.Addthis: Get more shares, follows and conversions.Bitly: Create, share, and track shortened links.Brand24: Identify and analyze online conversations about your brand,product and competition. Easy to use, reliable and cost-effective. Brand24 isused by hundreds of businesses of all sizes.Buffer Free Plan: Schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google+.Click To Tweet: Get more shares on your content.Disqus: Build a community of active readers & commenters.Hootsuite: The world’s most widely used social relationship platform, withmore than 10 million users in 175+ countries.Klout: Social media influence score on browser extension.Latergram: Easily plan & schedule your Instagram posts.Presskit Generator: Generate a Press Kit for your iOS App for free.SharedCount: Track URL shares, likes, tweets, and more.SocialRank: Identify, organize, and manage your followers on Twitter. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 12
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)It is necessary for a startup to validate its growth and value hypotheses atthe earliest possible opportunity. For that to happen, it is necessary thatthe startup develops a version of the product that is at a level ofcompletion whereby it can show the level of value that it can bring tocustomers in the target market. Since MVP contains just the bareminimum core features of a product, they require less time to develop asopposed to a completed product. Yet, for an MVP to be an effectivetesting tool, it is necessary that it includes the capabilities necessary tomeasure its traction in the market.Blocs app: Build beautiful websites without touching a line of code.Generator: The easiest way to make a landing page for your startup.Instapage: Makes building and A/B split testing landing pages simple.LaunchRock: Use LaunchRock to Start Now and Launch Your Landing Pagein Minutes. Acquire, engage and grow your audience with powerful socialsharing tools & analytics that drive user growth.Marvel: Just had the next billion-dollar app idea? Grab a pen and withinminutes your idea will come to life with Marvel.POP: Helps you transform your pen + paper ideas into a real workingprototype.Proto.io: A web platform enabling users to create fully interactive mobile appprototypes.QuickMVP:The easiest way to test your ideas, without wasting time ormoney.Strikingly: An online web platform enabling individuals to build mobile-optimized websites.Untorch: Get signups with an Untorch referral campaign. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 13
MarketingSometimes your best customers might see your advertisements hundredsof times before they buy anything. A lot of people see an ad or onlinerecommendation and, instead of buying straight away, remember thebrand name for future reference. Raising awareness plants yourbusiness’s brand, its product, and its benefits in the mind of your targetaudience. By raising awareness through marketing, you’ll build a hugeaudience of potential customers who know who you are, know what youcan offer, and know exactly where to find you. Don’t feel bad if yourmarketing campaigns don’t drive increased sales right away, as raisingawareness is often just as important.Branch Metrics: Helps apps grow through seamless referrals, sharing anddeep linking across installs.Customer.io: Helps you send targeted human messages to your users, byutilizing their unique interactions with your business.Gleam: Helps thousands of businesses run amazing competitions acrosssocial networks.GrowthHackers: A community to learn and share about ethical onlinemarketing techniques that drive effective, scalable and sustainable growth.MailChimp: More than 7 million people use MailChimp to design and sendemail marketing campaigns.Petithacks: Showcases a collection of Acquisition, Retention, & Revenuehacks used by companies.Really Good Emails: A large collection of good product email design.Revue: Create an engaging, gorgeous, weekly digest. You focus on curation,Revue makes sure it looks awesome.SumoMe: Get the best tools to increase your site's traffic, signups and shareswith SumoMe. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 14
Early usersEarly adopters carry no baggage and come with no preconceived idea ofwhat your product should or should not do. They are the best at breakingwhat you have built, and giving you honest feedback on what you aredoing right and wrong. They will give you something worth its weight ingold: the honest truth. If your product succeeds and impresses an earlyadopter, that person also becomes your company’s biggest asset. Now,you have someone who has taken the leap and tried your product, put it touse, and (if you’re lucky) will be vocal about their experience with theirtrusted peers. That word-of-mouth endorsement is the most powerfulform of marketing money CAN’T buy.BetaList: Previously covered startups such as Pinterest, IFTTT and Mailboxbefore they launched and made it big.ErliBird: An early adopter and beta testing community with 40,000+ real-world users.KillerStartups: A user driven internet startups community.Launching Next: Showcases the world's most promising new startups everyday.Product Hunt: A curation of the best new products, every day. Discover thelatest mobile apps, websites, and technology products that everyone'stalking about.Show Hacker News: A way to share something that you've made on HackerNews.Startuptabs: The startup discovery engine. Startuptabs help you discovernew startups with every tab you open.Startup Buffer: A place to find, follow, and recommend startups. They caterto early adopters. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 15
PresentationsThere are plenty of ways to help you optimize your slides. Remember that,while the slides should be absolutely awesome, they are not the mainevent – YOU are. The slides should complement your presentation, not theother way around. Your attendees are there to listen to you talk and theslides are there to support you deliver your message.Chartblocks: The world's easiest chart builder app. Design and share a chartin minutes.FlowVella: The perfect presentation software for the modern world. Createstunning presentations from your Mac or iPad – share them with anyone.Haiku Deck: Create inspiring presentations and set your story free with HaikuDeck, available for iPad and iPhone, or on the web.Infogr.am: The world's most popular infographics creator.Prezi: Resonate, motivate, and be remembered with Prezi. Presentationsoftware reimagined.Silk: With Silk, you can publish your data online, beautifully.Slidebean: Dozens of pitch deck templates for startups. Just add yourcontent, Slidebean designs it for you.Slides Carnival: Provides you with free templates for your Google slidespresentations.SlideShare: A LinkedIn company and the world's largest community forsharing presentations.Swipe: With Swipe, anything can be a slide and you can present it live toanyone, anywhere, on any device. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 16
Product DemoDemoing or sampling enables consumers to see how products performwithout having to risk buying first. A great product demonstration is notjust about alerting customers of your product, but is about informing andshowing them how it can benefit them as an individual and how it canprovide solutions to their problems.Dissolve: Provides royalty-free HD footage for your product demo.Dunnnk: Upload your designs and download a final mockup within seconds.Explainify: Remarkable videos for businesses. Explainify are experts inanimated video production.Placeit: Make Beautiful Product Mockups & Videos.Recordit: Record screencasts super fast, for free.Startup Videos: Showcases the best explainer videos you can find on theweb.The Appetize.io Beta: Gets you a dedicated iOS simulator in your browser.VideoBlocks: Provides unlimited download access to over 100,000 clips ofstock videos, backgrounds, AE (After Effects) templates and more!Videolean: Create your product video in minutes.VideoScribe: Pure magic. Create your own whiteboard-style animations withno design or technical know-how. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 17
LaunchingOne of the most important factors in timing the launch of your businesshas to do with how prepared you are to open your doors to the world. Ifyou have rushed through the preparation process without laying a solidfoundation, then now is definitely not the right time to launch yourcompany. Take the time you need to research your market, understandyour product and nail down your procedures. You should also take stepsto make sure you have met the necessary codes and requirements.BuzzSumo: Helps you analyze what content performs best for any topic orcompetitor.Hey Press: A searchable media database that lets you find the most relevantjournalists for free.JustReachOut: The easiest way for startups and individuals to find and pitchrelevant reporters based on the best fit for topic.Nouncy: Create a landing page, build up support and launch it with a splashof social media posts.Pitchpigeon: A pitch delivery platform for tech companies.Pressfarm: Get a link to a journalist's email, bio and twitter with Pressfarm.Pr.co: The PR toolkit you will actually love and use.PRX: The easy \"no-agency\" PR solution that requires no heavy lifting.Publicize: Offers cost-effective PR solutions to entrepreneurs.Startuplister: Helps startups submit to directories and pitch journalists withless than 5 minutes of effort. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 18
AnalyticsAnalytics helps your business determine what is working well, and whatneeds to be improved. Metrics help entrepreneurs make smart, informeddecisions about their startups. They can identify trends and patterns,problem areas and successes, and potential next steps. Before makingmajor decisions (e.g. product iterations and raising capital), startups canconsult their metrics.Chartio: An award-winning interface to data.Crazy Egg: Through Crazy Egg's heat map and scroll map reports, you canget an understanding of how your visitors engage with your website.Geckoboard: A real-time dashboard that gives you instant access to yourmost important metrics.Google Analytics: A web analytics solution that gives you rich insights intoyour website’s data.KISSmetrics: Gives you the insights you need to optimize your marketing.Mixpanel: The most advanced analytics platform in the world for mobile &web.Optimizely: A website optimization platform that makes A/B and multivariatetesting incredibly easy and powerful.Segment: A single hub for customer data. Collect your customer data in oneplace, send it anywhere.TrepScore: An Intelligent Data Management System designed forEntrepreneurs.UXCam: Captures and visualizes user behavior data to improve the usabilityof your app. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 19
Mobile (app) analyticsThe way people interact with an app is different from the way they usewebsites. The objective of a mobile app developer is to evaluate userlifetime value, retention, and the frequency of usage.App Annie: The leading provider of app store analytics, app rankings, andmarket intelligence.Appsee: Provides in-depth analysis of your users' behavior, allowing you todeliver the ultimate app experience.AppsFlyer: The market leader in mobile advertising attribution & analytics,helping marketers to pinpoint their targeting, optimize their ad spend andboost their ROI.Countly: A self-hosted/cloud mobile application analytics & pushnotifications platform, developed by data scientists.Heatmaps: A lightweight iOS framework that tracks individual parts of userapps to collect taps, gestures, and device interactions.Localytics: A closed-loop app analytics and marketing platform that helpsbrands acquire, engage, and retain users.SearchMan: App Store Optimization & SEO Software, Made Easy withSearchMan.Taplytics: Mobile A/B testing without App Store updates on iOS and Android.Run real time experiments and increase app revenue with Taplytics.Vessel: Make informed decisions with mobile AB testing, run A/B tests,analyze results and increase revenue with Vessel. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 20
Customer supportBeing always available for your customers is what will make you stand outfrom other companies. People like to be served quickly and to know thatthere is always somebody that will answer their questions. No matter whatsize of your business, you must try always be available. Of course, thatdoes not mean you will stay online for 24/7, but trying to answercustomers’ queries in your free time will only help you.Casengo: Offers super simple customer service software for email, live chat,and social media.ClickDesk: A reliable combo of Live Chat, Helpdesk, Voice and Video toolsfor your website.Front: Takes out the pain of shared inboxes (contact@, team@, jobs@...) byintroducing collaboration in emails.Keeping: A Gmail extension that adds helpdesk functionalities to any Gmailaccount.LiveChat: A fully capable tool that gives you a complex customer service andhelps you proactively convert website visitors into customers.Respond: A social customer service and community engagement tool, builtby Buffer.Retain.cc: Send behavior-driven emails and in-app messages to your users,based on who they are and what they do.Squaresend: Turns your mailto links into delightful feedback forms.UserVoice: Integrates easy-to-use feedback, helpdesk, and knowledge basemanagement tools in one platform.Zendesk: A leading cloud-based customer service software solution. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 21
Project managementEffective startup management can be the key to the lasting success of anynew company. To set the stage for success down the road, a well-organized structure is necessary from the beginning. Startups tend to belean on staff in their early days, so it is important to have a solid plan ofaction to make sure all projects are planned and executed as efficientlyand effectively as possible.Asana: Puts conversations & tasks together, so you can get more done withless effort.Basecamp: The leading web-based project management and collaborationtool. To-dos, files, messages, schedules, and milestones.Codebase: A software project management tool with Git, Mercurial andSubversion hosting.Blossom: A very lightweight project management tool that assists people increating the products they love.Goplan: An project management and collaboration tool for individuals andteams. Tasks, Tickets, Calendar, Time tracking and Documents.Kanban Tool: A super simple and powerful collaboration tool for visual taskand project management.Pivotal Tracker: An awesome, lightweight, agile project management toolfor software teams.Sprintly: An agile tool that powers a more productive relationship betweendevelopment teams and their management.TeamGantt: Offers the easiest way to plan, track, and communicate on yourprojects.Wrike: An advanced project management & collaboration tools for Enterpriseand SMB. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 22
Collaboration and CommunicationCommunication is essential when it comes to collaboration. Youremployees will never be able to work together on the same projecteffectively, without the adequate communication skills. No matter if youremployees try to collaborate using a simple project management tool orthey do this in person, they will have troubles if their communication skillsare not on the same level. When it comes to collaboration, it is essentialthat all people involved in a certain project are on the same page and thatthey understand the information shared with them. They also need toknow how to deliver some valuable information to others.Flowdock: A team collaboration app for desktop, mobile & web.HipChat: A group instant messaging built exclusively for teams.Join.me: Provides instant screen sharing tool for ad-hoc collaborations,trainings and online meetings.Podio: The online work platform. Manage, share, and get your work donesmarter together with tools that work like you.Quip: A beautiful mobile productivity suite that enables you to collaborate onany device.RealtimeBoard: Your regular whiteboard, re-thought for the best onlineexperience.Slack: Brings all your communication together in one place. It’s real-timemessaging, archiving and search for modern teams.Sneek: Lets you see your team mates all day and start instant video chatswith a single click.Sqwiggle: A tool for instant tap on the shoulder remote discussions.Yammer: A private social network that helps employees collaborate acrossdepartments, locations and business apps. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 23
ProductivityIt’s a weird mix of exciting, scary and just painfully tiring to launch yourown startup. When the hours on the clock seem too few and the tasks onyour to-do list seem endless, you’ll be glad you have a support system thathelps you keep chugging along just fine. As an entrepreneur, it’s vital foryou to be as productive and efficient as you can. Not only will this help yoube more effective and efficient at your job, but it will also help reduce thestress that comes with running and working at a startup.1Password: A password manager and secure wallet for Mac, Windows, iOS,and Android.Assistant.to: Allows you to schedule in seconds all within email. No moreback and forth. No double bookings. Get it now for Gmail.Brain.fm: Helps you focus, relax or sleep in minutes via research drivenneuroscience music.Do: Helps you run productive meetings. Do work you love.Evernote: Designs apps and products that transform the way you work.Focus: A Mac app that blocks distracting websites so you can boost yourproductivity.Forest: An app helping you stay away from your smartphone and stayfocused on your work.SaneBox: Learns what email is important to you and filters out what isn't.SlimWiki: Wikis don’t have to be ugly, complex and hard to manage.Welcome to the future of the Wiki, with SlimWiki.YRA: Provides high caliber virtual assistants to entrepreneurs and startups. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 24
Feedback and BugtrackingEvery bug which is reported demands additional time in a project to befixed. Bugtracking, therefore, requires sensitivity as well as greatcommunication skills from the people tracking bugs as well as from thosefixing them. There are a lot of misunderstandings out there about the workof developers and testers. So bring everyone on the same page and createa feedback-orientated culture where the work of developers and testersare respected in the same way.BugClipper: Report issues directly from your app, with screenshots, screenrecordings and crash videos.BugHerd: The easiest way to collect client feedback, resolve issues andmanage your projects.Crittercism: Run faster, better and smarter apps with Crittercism’s mobileapplication performance management.Doorbell: Easily gather in-app user feedback, on websites, iOS apps, andAndroid apps with Doorbell.Jira: Track and manage everything with JIRA project and issue trackingsoftware by Atlassian.Lighthouse: Helps you keep track of your project development with ease.Promoter.io: Easily measure your Net Promoter Score.Rollbar: Collects and analyzes errors on web and mobile apps so you canfind and fix them faster.TapeRecorder: An SDK (software development kit) that allows you to recordwhat users are doing in your app.Usersnap: A visual bug tracker for everyone working on a web project. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 25
Building WebsitesThink of your website as being your online brochure or catalog. It is mucheasier and quicker to update information about your products andservices on your website than in print material, making it an effective wayof letting your customers know about the arrival of new products,upcoming events, special promotions, or any new services you now offer.Bootstrap Zero: The largest open-source, free Bootstrap template collection.Drupal: Open source CMS (Content Management System).HTML5 UP: Responsive HTML5 and CSS3 site templates.Joomla: Open source CMS (Content Management System).Landing Harbor: Promote your mobile app with a free landing page.Pikock: Website builder.Squarespace: Visual site builder with good themes and integrations withstores, payments, newsletters, etc.Strikingly: Easy site builder for nice single-page sites like manifestos,personal/company pages, or landing pages.Shopify: For e-commerce and online stores.Templated: A collection of 845 free CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) & HTML5site templates.Weebly: Website, blog creation tool.WordPress: Website, blog CMS tools. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 26
Branding and LogosCreating an identity that resonates with your clients reinforces theemotional relationship that is at the heart of a truly successful brand.Logaster: Professional online logo maker & generator.Hipster Logo Generator: It’s Hip, It’s Current, It’s Stylish, It’s Hipster.Squarespace Free Logo: You can download free low-res version for free.Signature Maker: A free web-based tool that creates your handwritten digitalsignature. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 27
ArtToday's most obvious examples of art and business overlap admirably,but they also thrive because of an uncomplicated fit between theaudience for the brand and the artwork.500px: Non-cheesy stock photography.Canva: Amazingly simple graphic design for bloggers.Easel.ly: Create and share powerful visuals.Flickr Creative commons: Search for photos with the appropriate usagerights.Glyphicons: Icon set.Infogr.am: Create infographic and online charts.Info Active: Data meet design.Piktochart: Create easy infographic, charts and reports.Subtle Patterns: Pretty much what it says on the tin; for backgrounds andtextures.Venngage: Everything to publish infographics. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 28
InvoicingEnsuring that your customer receives an accurate invoice is important. It’salso important that you are able to determine the billing nature of a job, sothat the invoice that is raised is accurate.Free Invoice Generator: Alternative free invoice generator.Invoice.to: Free invoice generator.Invoice to me: Free Invoice Generator.Slimvoice: Insanely simple invoices.Wave: Free & easy accounting, invoicing and more. bethmalatji.com | 29
E-commerceSelling goods and services online comes with a wide variety of benefits.Most significantly, it opens businesses up to a much larger customer basethan they can access with a brick-and-mortar location alone. With an e-commerce site, businesses aren't limited to selling their merchandise tothose in and around their local communities. Shoppers all around theglobe can access the sites, significantly boosting the potential for profit.In another plus, e-commerce businesses always stay open.Big Cartel: A simple shopping cart for clothing and tee designers, bands,record labels, jewelry makers, crafters, and other artists.Celery: Helps new product companies set up pre-order e-commerce orcustom reward-based crowdfunding campaigns.Gumroad: Enables creators to sell directly to their audience — so that theycan make a living doing what they love.Highwire Commerce: Allows you to create your own online store in justminutes!LemonStand: Grow beyond the limits of shopping carts built for part-timemerchants with LemonStand's eCommerce platform.Near Me: A peer-to-peer commerce solution enabling anyone to set up theirown branded marketplace.Shopify: Build your online store with Shopify's e-commerce software andeasily sell in person with Shopify's iPad POS.Spaces: Create landing pages integrated with payments in no time, withSpaces, for free.Squarespace: Lets you easily create a fully integrated e-commerce websiteand accept payments instantly.Tictail: An e-commerce website for everyone. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 30
PaymentsStartups should look to a payment solution that encompasses andaccepts many types of currencies and that integrates seamlessly withmobile, and gives mobile users an optimal experience to easily checkouton their devices. Consumers are on multiple channels and expect safe,secure, easy checkouts. Users feel safer with well-known brands, sostartups should consider using a trusted payment platform that integrateson multiple channels to capture their diverse browsing habits and easetheir worries of security.Braintree: The easiest way to accept payments online and on a mobile app.Apply online, instant approvals.Chargebee: An affordable subscription billing & recurring billing solution foronline web apps.Chargify: Simplifies recurring billing for Web 2.0 and SaaS (Software as aService) companies.Coinbase: The simplest way to buy, use, and accept Bitcoin.Paymill: The fastest and easiest way to accept payments online.Plasso: Makes accepting and making payments quick & easy.Recurly: Offers enterprise-class subscription billing for thousands ofcompanies worldwide.Stripe: A developer-friendly way to accept payments online and in mobileapps.WePay: Designed for platforms like marketplaces, crowdfunding sites &small business tools.Zuora: A cloud technology that helps companies build subscription businessmodels by establishing recurring customer relationships. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 31
OutsourcingOutsourcing gives small, new companies the opportunity to quicklybranch out, and to ensure that some of their business-related tasks aredone quickly and efficiently, by someone who really understands how todo them—instead of handing the task over to someone in-house who hasno time or idea how to complete the task.99designs: The world’s largest online marketplace for design.CodersClan: Get quick and reliable solutions for code tasks and projectswith CodersClan.Creative Market: A platform for handcrafted, mousemade design contentfrom independent creatives around the world.Fiverr: The marketplace for creative & professional services.Folyo: Helps startups find great designers by connecting them with acurated list of talented freelancers.Gigster: Hire a quality developer for your project in less than5 minutes withGigster.Growth Geeks: An exclusive network of on-demand digital marketing andgrowth hacking experts.Toptal: A marketplace where start-ups connect with top software developers.Upwork: A leading online workplace, where savvy businesses and talentedfreelancers get the job done.Yeeply: Hire the best expert to develop your mobile application with Yeeply. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 32
Raising capitalWhen raising money from angels or VC’s you have to keep in mind thatthey will own a piece of the business and you then have a fiduciaryresponsibility to act in the best interests of the business and itsshareholders. Attracting angel investors is a tricky business, and nomatter how exciting and positive the initial conversations may be, thedevil is always in the details. Know your business plan, be transparent,back up your valuation with real projections, and build a relationshipbased on trust.AngelList: Where the world meets startups.Captable.io: A simple tool for recording and sharing your startup's captable.Dealroom: Gives you direct and secure access to the world’s mostsophisticated investors at your fingertips.Gust: Connects startups with the largest collection of investors across theworld.f6s: Where startups grow together.Foundersuite: Provides you with tools to get startup sh*t done.Search VentureFocus: Curated database of 6000 investors by stage, region,sector and more to find the perfect match for your company.SeedInvest: A leading equity crowdfunding platform. They help startupsraise capital online in a simple, streamlined way.Sharewave: The best way to manage shareholders.TheFunded: A guide to help entrepreneurs find the perfect funding sourcefor their business. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 33
Investor relationsWhen things are going well, everyone feels like they’re on the same side ofthe table. When things are going not so well, it’s a different story. This isthe reality of the startup-investor relationship. It’s not an easy relationshipby any means. The relationship is made more challenging by the fact thatit goes through an early honeymoon period shortly after an investment ismade. Everyone is happy and excited. But then the real work begins. Andthe real difficulties.Coding VC: A template for your update emails to your investors.Grow: The simplest BI dashboard software available.Hockeystick: Gets investors engaged and active.Opstarts: Makes planning and forecasting simple.Reportally: Offers investor reporting and board governance for startups andSMEs.Seederboard: A communications platform which helps companies infunding stages between seed and IPO (initial public offering).Sharkboard: Connects unlisted companies with their stakeholders.Update My VC: A modern guide to keeping in touch with your investors.Visible: Takes the pain out of reporting.Xtensio: Show your company’s strengths, latest information and progresswith Xtensio. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 34
SalesMost startup CEOs aren’t natural salespeople. It’s probably not asignificant part of their work history. But if you can’t do sales for your ownstartup you’re going to end up relying too significantly on others for yourstartup’s overall success. Sales and Selling are vitally important! If youcan't sell yourself, your idea, your product or service, then you don't have abusiness! Because at the end of the day, someone has to sell something tosomebody!Close.io: The inside sales CRM of choice for SMBs.Fileboard: Present, ScreenShare and Track Results from your Slide Decksand Live Sales Calls with Fileboard.LeadGenius: Provides delightfully simple sales and marketing services foryour growing business.Mattermark: Provides the leading research tools for understanding the worldof private companies.PersistIQ: Helps sales reps turn cold leads into qualified opportunities.Receiptful: Start increasing your Customer Lifetime Value for free today withReceiptful.Sell Hack: Use Sell Hack To extend social profiles with a HACK IN button anduncover more data.Sidekick: A free service that gives you email superpowers with contactinsights, email tracking, and email scheduling.Sparta: Helps sales teams drive revenue growth and reach their potentialwith a simple to use sales gamification platform.VoilaNorbert: Aims to help people find anyone email address by only havingtheir full name and company domain. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 35
Customer relationship management (CRM)In the early stages of business development (and for some this neverreally stops), you’re on the road, you travel, you attend a lot of meetings,and you want to make sure your entire business is easily accessible to youon your preferred device, phone, tablet, laptop or even watch. In thestartup world you are always ONE DEAL away. It’s important that youspend most of your time focusing on developing new businessrelationships or making product advancement. You can use a CRM tool toget more visibility into your client base, ponder the tactics needed forlong-term profitability, and formulate better plans that impel your staff tobreak new operational ground.Charlie: Automatically briefs you on people before you see them.Contactually: Automatically reminds you to stay connected with your topleads.FullContact: Know everything about your Gmail contacts, right from yourinbox with FullContact for Gmail.Highrise: Your secret weapon to track tasks, contacts, and notes.Intercom: More than 4,000 web and mobile businesses use Intercom toconnect with customers. They have live conversations inside their productsand send targeted email and in-app messages, triggered by time or behavior.Pardot: Provides no-hassle marketing automation.Refresh: Discover common ground for better conversations with Refresh.RelateIQ: Rethinking customer relationship management to help you drivemore revenue.Streak: The easiest way to manage business processes in Gmail.Vtiger: Helps small and mid-sized businesses become more customercentric. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 36
Legal and complianceCompliance and its importance is often overlooked by many startups newto the business ecosystem simply because they are not aware of theexisting laws. Ignorance may not be bliss in such cases as it affects astartup’s viability and attractiveness to a potential investor. Legal issuesfor entrepreneurs and new ventures include: business entity choices,business licenses, service contracts, employee issues, and more.Addressing those types of issues early on will help your business to startup quicker (and more efficiently).Contractually: Use Contractually to keep momentum in your business bycollaborating online with your business partners and customers.Docracy: The web's only open collection of legal contracts and the best wayto negotiate and sign documents online.DocuSign: Securely sign and manage documents online from any devicewith DocuSign.FormSwift: A SaaS company providing businesses with a modern solution totheir paperwork.Lawtrades: A marketplace that helps startups and entrepreneurs find andhire great lawyers at a fraction of the price.LegalZoom: The nation's leading provider of personalized, online legalsolutions and legal documents for small business owners and families.Rocket Lawyer: Manage all of your legal needs online with Rocket Lawyer.Snapterms: A simple, fast and effective solution for terms of service, privacypolicies and more for your website.Startup Documents: Streamlines the incorporation and legal documentprocess for founders and lawyers.TermsFeed: Generate Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions with TermsFeed. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 37
FinanceWhen you’re an entrepreneur, you’re busy working every day to find yourway, build your product/services, grow your company, and achieve yourgoals. Unless you’re a financial whiz, it’s not always easy to also work outyour financial plan and pin down precise numbers—and sometimesimportant financial details can fall by the wayside. Even if you are afinancial whiz, creating a financial plan and managing your finances canbe challenging. But it is essential that you understand the importance ofaccurate financials—both for your own stability and ability to plan, as wellas to convince and assure potential investors of the validity of yourbusiness.Ballpark: Thousands of small businesses use Ballpark to send invoices,receive payments, bid on projects, and keep their team on the same page.ChargeDesk: Use ChargeDesk and integrate Stripe, Braintree, WePay &PayPal with Zendesk.Expensify: The best expense reporting app on your phone & web.FreeAgent: An accounting software for small businesses and freelancers.Free Invoice Generator: Easy to use free invoice template to create invoicesin PDF.FreshBooks: The #1 cloud accounting solution.Gusto: The most delightful payroll service you'll ever use.InDinero: The fastest growing way for business owners to manage theirmoney.Startup Financial Model: Walks you through the important questions ofcreating a credible financial plan step-by-step.Sush.io: All your SaaS and Online apps. Get Business Analytics with smartautomations! The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 38
Human ResourcesHiring is one of the areas where startups can and should focus on, in termsof human resources. Startups are often seeking to hire the best talent intheir given industry, but they must compete with larger, more establishedorganizations. Because of this, they must be more innovative in theirhiring practices. Having an employee dedicated to working in humanresources, or at least formal recruitment and hiring systems in place, cangreatly benefit startups and help them to attract and retain top talent.Homerun: Enables your company to create authentic job openings, receivericher applications and review applicants faster and more effective.Kin HR Software: Streamlines HR for your entire team.Lesson.ly: The easy training software.Lever: A modern web app for organizing your hiring.Namely: The leading end-to-end HR, payroll, and benefits platform forgrowing companies.Playbook HR: Offers an applicant tracking system for independentworkforces.Recruitee: Organize your hiring in a collaborative hiring platform. Recruiteecombines four products: employer branding, job promoting, talent sourcing,and applicant tracking. Used by 400+ fast-growing companies like Hotjar,Airbrake, and Usabilla.The Resumator: An applicant tracking system & resume database that willhelp you make great hires every time.Tyba: Matches fast-growing companies with the talent that'll drive themforward.Workable: A beautifully simple tool to advertise jobs and make better hiringdecisions with your team. bethmalatji.com | 39
Where to learnThere are a lot of tools and resources at your fingertips online to help yousuccessfully plan, launch and run your business. To launch any newventure, you must take in a massive amount of new information. Not onlyshould you acquire the information, but you must also put it into practiceinstantly, aggressively, and innovatively. Once you have your information,act on it. Every day spent preparing is a lost day of implementing.Dorm Room Tycoon: The podcast show that interviews the world's mostinfluential innovators.How to start a startup: Everything we know about how to start a startup, forfree, from some of the world experts.Google Ventures Library: Get advice on everything from productmanagement to workspace design, inside the Google Ventures Library.Mixergy: Where entrepreneurs & authors — Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, PaulGraham, Eric Ries, Barbara Corcoran & more — teach ambitious upstarts.Rocketship.fm: Learn about product development, funding, bootstrapping,sales, and growth via Rocketship.fm.Startup{ery: Gathers and organizes the best resources to help you build yourbusiness.StartUp: A podcast series about what happens when someone who knowsnothing about business starts one.StartupsAnonymous: A place for startups to share stories and ask questionsanonymously.Startup Notes: Doodle notes from Startup Notes 2014.Udacity online courses: Bridge the gap between real world skills, relevanteducation, and employment. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 40
Books to readReading a good book is always a nice experience, especially if you are inthe endeavor of something crazy and big. You are what you read, and ifyour goal is to build a massively successful company where you call theshots, you might want to start some great books.Running lean: How to iterate from plan a to a plan that works.Start with why: A book for those who want to inspire others and for thosewho want to find someone to inspire them.The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personalchange.The four steps to the epiphany: Successful strategies for products that win.The hard thing about hard things: Building a business when there are noeasy answers.The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference.Traction Book: Almost every failed startup has a product. What failedstartups don't have are enough customers. Traction Book changes that.Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation.Without their permission: How the 21st century will be made, not managed.Zero to One: Legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how tobuild a great business—and a better future. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 41
Videos and TV showsMotivational videos can be a great, free tool to get you pumped up andready for action. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is theguidance and motivation provided by mentors, leaders and others whohave gone before you. Thanks to the Internet you don’t need to pay tolisten and be taught by the greatest masters of motivation.#Startupmovies: Offers the best movies, series and geeks documentariesfeaturing startups and entrepreneurs.50 groundbreaking startup ideas: 50 startup founders discussing theorigins of their ideas.Foundation: A monthly video series interviewing influential founders in thetech community.Growth hacker tv: Trying to grow a startup? Hustlers don't watch cable, theywatch growth hacker tv. New episodes released weekly.Sandwich video: Makes videos, mostly for neat tech products.Small empires: Small empires is the verge’s weekly show on rising startups.Startup grind videos: Startup grind is a global startup community designedto educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.Suits and Sneakers: A human development series and informal learningchannel.The #askgaryvee show: You ask questions; Gary Vaynerchuk will try toanswer them.This week in startups: Tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis hosts discussionof the startup news that matters. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 42
NewslettersYou probably receive too many emails. And, for some of us, our inboxesare already overwhelming. But the fact remains that email is still the mostmanageable way of consuming the best content on the web. If you are notsubscribed to any of these yet, try one or two. These are some of the bestnewsletters you’ll be excited to open every week.Charged: A handcrafted newsletter with the most interesting stories ontech/startups.Founders Grid: A news feed & daily newsletter covering business, design,and tech.Hacker newsletter: The hacker news newsletter.IOS Dev weekly: The Best of iOS Development, Delivered weekly, for free.Letterlist: Discover awesome newsletters.Sidebar: Delivers you the 5 best design links curated by a selection of greateditors.The LAUNCH Ticker: A daily newsletter that curates the top stories in techevery day.The Mattermark daily: Get first-person accounts of entrepreneurship.The UX newsletter: Stories about designing, researching and building allthings MailChimp.The sunday dispatches: Weekly articles to help you be a better creative. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 43
Articles to readWhile no single business “How-to” or ”How-I” articles contains all theinformation you need to launch a successful business, a collection ofquality articles can help you glean vital wisdom and inspiration before youtake the plunge.Good and bad reasons to become an entrepreneur: Dustin Moskovitz is aco-founder of Facebook, and now founder at Asana.How to write emails like a CEO: Andrew Torba is the co-founder and CEO [email protected] of Africa: The digital home for Africa's women entrepreneurs.Paul Graham’s essays: Paul Graham is a programmer, writer, and investor.Postmortem of a VC-backed startup: Lessons learned from the rise and fallof @sonar.Quitting my corporate job: Ali Mese is a storyteller, entrepreneur &freelancer.The artifacts of product hunt: The product hunt story told in tweets, photos,and emails.The spark file: Steven Johnson is a writer and has published 9 books.Wealth Ladder Magazine: Interviews world's best influential founders.What I wish I knew before I pitched LinkedIn to VCs: Reid Hoffman is anentrepreneur, product strategist, and investor.Writing a business plan: Sequoia helps founders turn imaginative ideas intoenduring companies.You are not late: Kevin Kelly is a senior maverick at Wired, cool tools maven,author of What technology wants, True films, and 1,000 true fans. The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 44
WorkbookAlmost every second person I know wants to be an entrepreneur.Entrepreneurship has recently become a sexy and trendy topic. The mediaglorifies the startup unicorns that hit big and TV shows like The Dragon'sDen, Shark Tank and TED Talks have introduced the entire world toentrepreneurs, leaving many people asking themselves, “Can I be one?”They always say “I want to be an entrepreneur -- how do I start?” The obviousanswer is that you need an idea first, but I’ve come to realize that the processis really much more complex than that.Many people with great ideas never make it as entrepreneurs, and trueentrepreneurs can make a business out of anything. Being an entrepreneur isglamorized, and for a good reason. Startup companies are capable oftransforming entire industries and of solving important global problems. At apersonal level, becoming an entrepreneur has the ability to create extremewealth and personal freedom, along with a deep sense of purpose andmeaning. All the amazingness that being an entrepreneur can deliver comesat a price. The simple truth is, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.Most people would be better off in a supporting role, or in joining a startupthat already has some traction.Before you jump into entrepreneurship with both feet, here are some of theimportant questions to ask yourself: Take some time to mull over thesequestions, do some soul-searching, and then if you think you have what ittakes, go for it.If you want to go over these questions with me, drop me an [email protected] The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 45
Workbook- Why am I starting a business?- What kind of business do I want?- Which business model best suits my mentality?- Am I passionate about my product or service?- Am I comfortable with uncertainty?- What is my tolerance for risk?- Do I have a strong support system in place?- How well do I handle criticism?- If I keep getting knocked down (and I will), am I going to keep getting back upfor more?- Can I remain motivated, even without personal luxuries and conveniences?- Who is my ideal customer?- What products or services will my business provide?- Am I prepared to spend the time and money needed to get my businessstarted?- Am I willing to take on numerous responsibilities?- Am I good at making decisions?- Am I confident and disciplined in facing tough challenges?- What differentiates my business idea and the products or services I willprovide from others in the market?- Where will my business be located?- How many employees will I need?- What types of suppliers do I need?- How much money do I need to get started?- Can I afford to take the risk, financially?- Will I need to get a loan?- How soon will it take before my products or services are available?- What strategies and tactics will I use to find leads?- How long do I have until I start making a profit?- Who is my competition?- How will I price my product compared to my competition?- How will I set up the legal structure of my business?- What taxes do I need to pay?- What kind of insurance do I need?- How will I manage my business?- How will I advertise my business?- Do I have the stamina and energy to run a business long term?- Am I willing to put in long hours and work weekends?- Do I have an exit strategy? The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 46
Startup IdeasComing up with a good idea isn’t a static process; it involves a lot of trial and error.The best way I’ve found to generate ideas is to use online idea generators andwriting down what I am currently curious about. Make lists every day of things thatyou might enjoy, and try to figure out how you could make money doing them.So many people today have the misconception that starting a business takes a lot ofmoney. The old saying, \"It takes money to make money\" has been ingrained in fartoo many people's memories. The truth is, it does NOT take money to make money.It takes value to earn money. You must provide others (your customers) withmassive value. In return, they will gladly send you money.You know you want to start something for yourself. You just need to funnel yourambition and time into an idea that’ll earn extra cash, make you proud, and possiblylead to a full-time venture—and that amazing moment you get to say “I quit!” toyour boss. But what great idea should you say “I start!” to?With growing global interconnectivity and constantly increasing opportunities forinnovating both new and old business ideas alike, an affordable startup businesscan quickly grow into something great. I have spent some serious time researchingand dug into the best relevant business ideas out there for keeping your startupcosts low and earnings potential high. It’s important to note that starting your ownbusiness is never easy, and you need to truly commit in order to become successful.People should not just start a business simply because it is trending and it is alsoprofitable. Loads of people join the bandwagon when it comes to starting abusiness and they ended up regretting such moves because they ended up gettingtheir fingers burnt.If you haven't yet found your entrepreneurial niche, perhaps you'll spot one or moreideas that sound promising. Some can be started as home-based business, othersreally can't. Some require you to be an expert in a particular task or industry. Othersare in fields that can more easily be learned. Please remember, there's no such thingas a stupid business idea. Good luck! The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 47
Startup Ideas1. Accounting and Bookkeeping2. Affiliate Sales and Marketing3. Airbnb Host4. Amazon Reselling5. App Developer6. Art Collector7. Art & Jewellery Making8. Background Checks9. Blogging10. Brew Your Own Beer11. Business Plan Service12. Career Counselling13. Career Counselling14. Catering15. Child Care Provider16. Cleaning Out Foreclosed Homes17. College Admissions Essay Editor18. Commission-Only Sales19. Computer & Mobile Device Training20. Computer Skills Tutor21. Consulting Service22. Contract Customer Service23. Copywriting for Websites24. Crafts Seller25. Create Information Products26. Custom Phone Case Business27. Data Analysis28. Digital publisher29. Direct Sales Consultant30. Dog Training31. Dog Walking/Pet Sitting Service32. Dropshipping Ecommerce Business33. Drive for Uber or Lyft34. eBay Seller35. Email Marketing36. Errand Service37. Financial plan services38. Fiverr Gigs The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 48
Startup Ideas40. Freelance Proofreading and Editing41. Freelance Writing42. Garage Cleaning/Garage Sale Guru43. Ghostwriter44. Green Cleaning Service45. Grocery delivery service46. Home-Based Makeup Services47. Homemade Gourmet Foods48. Homemade Natural Soaps/Beauty Products49. Housesitting50. Human Billboard51. Instagram Marketing52. Interior Design Consultant53. Internet Security Consultant54. Landing Page Specialist55. Life Coach/Mentor Service56. Licensed Product Distributor57. Local Tour Consultant58. Logo Design Services59. Media Consultancy60. Mobile Laundry Service61. Mobile Repair62. Music Instructor63. Online Coaching64. Online Courses65. Online Dating Consultant66. Online News Correspondent67. Personal Chef68. Personal Grocery Shopping69. Personal Finance Consulting70. Personal Trainer71. Pet Groomer72. Picture Framing73. Presentation Design Consultant74. Project Management Services75. Property Manager76. Purchasing an Existing Website77. Referral Business78. Remote English Teacher/Tutor The Bootstrapper's Lifesaving HACKS | 49
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