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to bootstrap or not to bootstrap

townhaus

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Hi guys.

I'm looking to launch my business soon, but i'm of strapped for cash so i'm bootstrapping and keeping costs as low as possible until i make the first few sales e.g i'm going to be using paypal for payments, wordpress and free plugins/themes for the site, social media for advertising etc.
Incorporating, merchant accounts and other expenses can come later.

I'm only looking to spend money where absolutely necessary to begin with- so hosting, domain name and email auto-responder. These arn't very expensive anyway.

I believe my business has massive potential, fitting the 5 fastlane commandments and i was shocked that there isn't anyone doing it already (for all i know there could be someone working on it). I want to get things going as quickly as possible before others see what i'm doing and try to copy/compete with me.

One things im uncertain about is whether i should begin immediately, or try and save up some cash first to give me the best chance of success.

Heres an example: I was listening to an interview recently and i found out that there were many startups that launched without having their perfect domain name available. Dropbox started as getdropbox.com and when groupon came up with the perfect name (group + coupon = groupon) they discovered that the domain name was already taken. They were using groupon.thepoint.com but registered "groupon" as a trademark which screwed the guy who owned the domain. He could no longer legally do anything with it (funnily enough he ended up selling it for £250k or something and perhaps thats more than he'd have made with it anyway).

I have a great domain name and i'm paranoid that someone might pull the same trick when they see me in the initial launch stage, or that someone with more capital will see my idea but launch faster through media buys while i'm trying to build my list organically.

Am I being paranoid? Should I just bootstrap and take on the risks i have mentioned, or wait (i have my exams in 5 weeks, then id need to work and save for a few months at least) and increase my chances of success.
 
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Eos

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I'm taking from your post that you are in University, I am to. I'd say complete your exams and then focus on the idea seen as you are only 5 weeks away from finishing.

Can you elaborate any more on the idea? Does the business require you to work on it all day or could you do that on an evening after finishing up at your job? How much capital you need depends on the business itself so clarification may help us out here, do you a partner? Savings that could be used?

You may wish to begin with a wordpress and paypal as you described, but I think the suitability of this is very much dependant on the type of business again. Dropbox may have launched with getdropbox.com but I remember seeing a presentation by the founder stating that whilst he released a MVP (minimum viable product) that doesn't include all of the features you see today the design and user interface of the product were his utmost priority from day 1.

As for the domain, whilst securing your great name could create a valuable brand in the future, at present it is just a domain name. If someone is planning to enter the market as you fear I dare say they could brainstorm their own killer brand name so I wouldn't get too hung up on the fear of yours being stolen at this stage.

Can you provide further clarification of the concept at all?
 

townhaus

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Im at uni, yes. I dont have a partner and I dont want to give away any % ownership even if i could get funding. Ill try asking my dad if he'll give me anything but i doubt he would. I dont have any savings, but i dont really need much e.g a grand or two. I would spend it on trademark, website, merchant account and media buys/leads. Id risk spending it, rather than bootstrapping if i had the cash, but i wont have any income until next term (october)

I can work on it in the evenings, yes. It shouldnt need to be full time to begin with, though i plan to outsource much of the work as i grow (coding, design, optimization, dealing with customers questions etc) and have the site improved further once I have sales coming in. Wordpress is sufficient for a minimum viable product, using existing themes/plugins for free and tweaking them if need be, so i can save money on coding and web design.

I dont want to give the concept away but i will mention that its not a new concept/anything revolutionary, just a gap in the market e.g something thats being done elsewhere and very successfully, but noone is doing it in my particular niche, especially where there is no reason not to. I would expect that someone else would have thought about it and be doing it already, given the opportunity if that makes sense and I want to get there first.
 

billbrownfarm

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As DTM said, first finish your exams.
Then I would start. If someone steals your idea, remember that the idea came from your head. If you came up with this idea you should be able to come up with many more. Maybe nobody will "steal" it and you will be a huge success. Think of how bad you will feel if someone else launches the idea that you never tried.

In February 2003 I wrote a business plan for an idea that is very similar to facebook for an MBA I was taking. There it sits today on the hard drive of my old computer as I never bothered to follow through on it.

Start your site the Monday after school lets out!
 
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Eos

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Mar 5, 2011
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Im at uni, yes. I dont have a partner and I dont want to give away any % ownership even if i could get funding. Ill try asking my dad if he'll give me anything but i doubt he would. I dont have any savings, but i dont really need much e.g a grand or two. I would spend it on trademark, website and media buys/leads. Id risk spending it, rather than bootstrapping if i had the cash, but i wont have any income until next term (october)

I can work on it in the evenings, yes. It shouldnt need to be full time to begin with, though i plan to outsource much of the work as i grow (coding, design, optimization, dealing with customers questions etc) and have the site improved further once I have sales coming in. Wordpress is sufficient for a minimum viable product, using existing themes/plugins for free and tweaking them if need be, so i can save money on coding and web design.

I dont want to give the concept away but i will mention that its not a new concept/anything revolutionary, just a gap in the market e.g something thats being done elsewhere and very successfully, but noone is doing it in my particular niche, especially where there is no reason not to. I would expect that someone else would have thought about it and be doing it already, given the opportunity if that makes sense and I want to get there first.

If the idea is not being done here yet but has been proven in another market I would say go for it! It seems there is a lot of money to be made in taking successfuly executed businesses from the US and other countries and doing them here.
I have this idea in mind myself once my term is out.
As we know its execution that makes money not the idea itself so I would say begin right away after the exams. If nobody is doing it here you could certainly benefit from first mover advantage and hope to establish a brand and hopefully some loyal customers by the time a rival enters the market (if at all)
 

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