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Is a Boodstrap business a fastlane business??

BaiAnrui

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For almost 10 years we have been building our company. We had a dynamic start (reached the 7 figures fairly quickly). But after a failed merge, we fell back (pretty much) in revenue.

But we kept building and working hard to maintain our name and trust for clients.
This consistent and hard work paid off. At the end of the year we achieved the 7 figures again, and we have a good team of people working for us!

Found out that this way of doing business falls under the term bootstrapping. We always invested our own money and time, never borrowed money or approached an investor, even when shit hit the fan.

This isn't really fastlane, or is it? Now that we are getting bigger again, we are becoming more interesting for acquisitions, so there is an exit strategy.

what do you think...is a boodstrap business fastlane??
 
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Robdavis

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Bootstrapping and Fastlane aren't really related.

When you start a business you may need funding for your startup capital. This might be from venture capitalists in return for an equity stake or via a loan from a bank or wealthy individual or company. Alternatively the business can be bootstrapped which means that the founders cover all the startup costs from their own pockets.

A business can be Slowlane or Fastlane or somewhere in between irrespective of how it was funded at startup. The criteria for assessing whether a business is Fastlane is the CENTS model. A business that meets the CENTS model criteria is a Fastlane business and a business that approximately meets the model is a somewhat Fastlane business. A business that fails to meet several of the CENTS criteria is a Slowlane business.

You told us that your business was bootstrapped, but that tells us nothing about where your business currently sits on the Slowlane - Fastlane continuum.
 

BaiAnrui

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Bootstrapping and Fastlane aren't really related.

When you start a business you may need funding for your startup capital. This might be from venture capitalists in return for an equity stake or via a loan from a bank or wealthy individual or company. Alternatively the business can be bootstrapped which means that the founders cover all the startup costs from their own pockets.

A business can be Slowlane or Fastlane or somewhere in between irrespective of how it was funded at startup. The criteria for assessing whether a business is Fastlane is the CENTS model. A business that meets the CENTS model criteria is a Fastlane business and a business that approximately meets the model is a somewhat Fastlane business. A business that fails to meet several of the CENTS criteria is a Slowlane business.

You told us that your business was bootstrapped, but that tells us nothing about where your business currently sits on the Slowlane - Fastlane continuum.
Good one @Robdavis .

As for the CENTS, the only thing we really struggle with is the scale. That really keeps us in the slow lane. Too many jobs depend on us (the owners). Must say that we are now phasing this out, by training new people in our working method.
What can also be interesting is working as a franchise, one of the freelancers who works for us has already asked for this opportunity.


I think it also has to do with the field in which we are active. It is about working with young people with all kinds of problems, but this is often community money, so very large profits are always under a magnifying glass.
(This while the big parties are burning millions with much less effect, but that aside)
 

Ing

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You answered your question yourself!
Do some more scale and you have your perfect fastlane business.
Franchise or a second same business.......
 
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BaiAnrui

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You answered your question yourself!
Do some more scale and you have your perfect fastlane business.
Franchise or a second same business.......
Thanks for the insight. We've talked about franchising before. Certainly interesting to investigate this further. Scaling through the deployment of people is currently difficult in the Netherlands. There is simply a shortage and we do have a certain requirement in terms of passion and pro-activity. That will certainly remain a challenge!
 

Walter Hay

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When you start a business you may need funding for your startup capital. This might be from venture capitalists in return for an equity stake or via a loan from a bank or wealthy individual or company. Alternatively the business can be bootstrapped which means that the founders cover all the startup costs from their own pockets.
When I started my industrial chemical business I had a total of $47 in my bank account. I bootstrapped that business after spending most of that money on a typewriter and a few printed letterheads that I used for typing up invoices, and one label.

With almost no money left I talked my way into getting an account with a major chemical raw materials company, and obtained a good size sample of a product that I knew (by studying product data sheets provided by various companies) that it would serve my purpose in an industrial process. I used that sample to demonstrate it, and it worked.

I made a big sale, and ordered a 45 gallon drum of the product, picked it up in a trailer towed behind my car, painted out the original brand, attached my typed label, and delivered the product.

For the first year I operated the business on a shoestring budget (bootstrapping) and from then on I never borrowed money, I paid cash for my cars, and I bought a used desk and chair.

That carefulness carried me through a deep recession with money to spare. After 20 years I sold the business. See my thread:

How I Made My First Million and the Next…….

Walter.
P.S. It was bootstrapped, and Fastlane. I had no mortgage, owned 2 European cars, and took my family with me on overseas business trips. (Holidays )
 
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BaiAnrui

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When I started my industrial chemical business I had a total of $47 in my bank account. I bootstrapped that business after spending most of that money on a typewriter and a few printed letterheads that I used for typing up invoices, and one label.

With almost no money left I talked my way into getting an account with a major chemical raw materials company, and obtained a good size sample of a product that I knew (by studying product data sheets provided by various companies) that it would serve my purpose in an industrial process. I used that sample to demonstrate it, and it worked.

I made a big sale, and ordered a 45 gallon drum of the product, picked it up in a trailer towed behind my car, painted out the original brand, attached my typed label, and delivered the product.

For the first year I operated the business on a shoestring budget (bootstrapping) and from then on I never borrowed money, I paid cash for my cars, and I bought a used desk and chair.

That carefulness carried me through a deep recession with money to spare. After 20 years I sold the business. See my thread:

How I Made My First Million and the Next…….

Walter.
P.S. It was bootstrapped, and Fastlane. I had no mortgage, owned 2 European cars, and took my family with me on overseas business trips. (Holidays )
@Walter Hay , Idid you read your thread. Very inspiring!!

Coincidentally yesterday we discussed the idea (with two of our most loyal freelancers) to investigate a franchise model.

I also recognize the story that people think you are a workaholic ... but they don't understand that I just get a lot of energy out of it. So I am always busy with something (now again updating my ebook about autism that I wrote for China, the rest of the world also needs this information I noticed when I was in Dubai -->opportunities again ;).

I have to say that I am also very serious about sports and nutrition, that's how I keep it up.

Hope your health is good now. Ps, you wrote an ebook you say, where can I find it?
 
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Walter Hay

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@Walter Hay , Idid you read your thread. Very inspiring!!

Coincidentally yesterday we discussed the idea (with two of our most loyal freelancers) to investigate a franchise model.

I also recognize the story that people think you are a workaholic ... but they don't understand that I just get a lot of energy out of it. So I am always busy with something (now again updating my ebook about autism that I wrote for China, the rest of the world also needs this information I noticed when I was in Dubai -->opportunities again ;).

I have to say that I am also very serious about sports and nutrition, that's how I keep it up.

Hope your health is good now. Ps, you wrote an ebook you say, where can I find it?
Thanks for your comments. I am pleased to say that my health is now much better than it was years ago, and I keep working, mainly on writing and publishing my books, as well as helping people here on the forum.

You can find my books here: Walter Hay's Business Books

If you are thinking about franchising you might also like to have a look at my thread:

Rapid Scaling a business by franchising​


Walter
 

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