Bootstrapping


Recent Bootstrapping Articles

10 Tips for Bootstrapping Your Marketing

By Inc. staff |  Jun 4, 2010

When money's tight, your brand's image doesn't have to suffer.  Read more


10 Tips for Bootstrapping Your Technology

By Inc. staff |  Jun 3, 2010

When you're starting a business on your own dime, the rule for tech is keep it simple.  Read more


How to Finance a Business With Your 401(k)

By Matt Quinn |  May 20, 2010

A bad lending environment and provisions in the tax code make tapping retirement funds a tempting start-up financing option. Here's what you need to know.  Read more


Trading Equity for Services

By Darren Dahl |  May 1, 2010

Why more companies are trying out a new kind of barter system.  Read more


Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: Nerds On Call

By J.J. McCorvey |  Apr 26, 2010

How a small computer repair company stole market share from Best Buy and embarked on a national expansion.  Read more


Bring It Back from the Brink

By Howard Greenstein |  Mar 31, 2010

What happens when you build a company, show growth and clients, get investment, and then the market drops out?  Read more


Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week: Smashing Ideas

By Sarah Kessler |  Mar 29, 2010

How three cartoon animators built an interactive branding company from their basements that's growing over 50 percent annually.  Read more


Is a Barter Exchange Right for Your Company?

By Minda Zetlin |  Nov 1, 2009

Careful: Some barter trades can be costly  Read more


The Bootstrapper's Guide to Launching New Products

By Darren Dahl |  Oct 1, 2009

Discovering the value of lean product development and minimum viable product  Read more


Great No-Cost Software

By Mark Spoonauer |  Sep 1, 2009

Paying is passé. Use these 10 free software programs instead  Read more


How to Manage Volunteer Software Developers

By Nitasha Tiku |  Jul 1, 2009

Companies like Etsy use developer tools such as APIs to entice developers to build mobile applications for free  Read more


How to Start a Beauty Company

By Leigh Buchanan |  Jul 1, 2009

If you have smarts, style, and nerve, then Maureen Kelly of Tarte Cosmetics says that you could hit it big  Read more


How to Start an Adventure Travel Company

By Leigh Buchanan |  Jul 1, 2009

Check every hotel personally, says Brian Morgan of Adventure Life. Same goes for the zip lines.  Read more


The Start-up Guru

By Max Chafkin |  Jun 1, 2009

Paul Graham's business school and investment fund, Y Combinator, has launched 145 companies -- for a lot less money than you would think  Read more


How to Get Customers to Pay Upfront

By Hannah Clark Steiman and Rod Kurtz |  Sep 5, 2007

Wouldn't it be great if your customers actually paid in advance? Unfortunately, for many small-business owners, that's easier said than done. But with the...  Watch video


Start-Up Advice from the Inc. 500

By Rod Kurtz and Michael Shick |  Jul 17, 2007

Six entrepreneurs' advice on the best practices when starting your business. Hear from Warren Brown of CakeLove on pacing yourself, Michael Alter of SureP...  Watch video


Jim Koch on the Secret to Effective (and Cheap) Marketing

By Jim Koch |  Apr 1, 2007

Educating consumers is crucial if you want to keep marketing expenses in check.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Use Cheap Web Tools

By Mike Fitzgerald |  Jul 1, 2006

Using open-source tools that are free on the Internet, Jason Fried and his partners began to devise applications for internal use--and soon sold them on thei...  Read more


The Billionaire Bootstrapper

By Tom Nawrocki |  Jul 1, 2006

A $550 sink nearly prevented Fred DeLuca from amassing a billion-dollar fortune.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Brand It Creatively

By Stephanie Clifford |  Jul 1, 2006

In launching Madsoul, an urban streetwear label, in 2000, Marc D'Amelio raised guerrilla marketing to an art form.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Switch Business Models On a Dime

By Max Chafkin |  Jul 1, 2006

Napoleon Barragan of 1-800-Mattress has been consistently inconsistent when it comes to building his $100 million company.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Get Your Suppliers to Finance You

By Stephanie Clifford |  Jul 1, 2006

Why not offer your key suppliers some upside?  Read more


The Coolest Little Start-Up in America

By Bo Burlingham |  Jul 1, 2006

For TerraCycle's Tom Szaky, nothing could be cooler--or sweeter--than selling garbage packaged in garbage.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Work From Home

By Max Chafkin |  Jul 1, 2006

Yvonne Shortt launched a marketing firm from the cramped, toy-strewn basement of her home--now she has five full-time employees, who also work from home.  Read more


Bootstrapping 101: Get Paid Up Front

By Stephanie Clifford |  Jul 1, 2006

David Segura started his company with the initial payment for his first job, and continued his business through early payments and barters.  Read more