How can you start a great business with no money down? How do you get 'table stakes' so you can have a place at the table too? The rule today is, if you have cashflow, you will get financed, not the other way round.
There really are no 'no money down startups'; there are only those with little money down. In reality, every business requires some investment. What we are talking about is starting a business with an amount of money that is really de minimumus with respect to the size of the opportunity. Mark McCormack started world leading sports management business (IMG, International Management Group) with $500, his law degree and Arnold Palmer as his first client. Mind you, it doesn't hurt if your first client is an Arnold Palmer.
There are many sources of bootstrap financing such as soft capital from friends and family, future customers or launch clients, future suppliers, strategic partners, nicro capital lending and grant programs, sale in advnace of rights fees, patents, and other forms of IP (Intellectual Property), consulting, trading activity, and much more. (More sources).
Probably only 1% of all startups will ever get any funding from VCs; that means that 990 out of 1,000 new enterprises are forced to use bootstrapping as their only means to success. Some observers feel that boostrapped businesses, ones that start with nothing, are actually or can be better businesses because they are more focused on results as well as efficiency and economy of effort. They certainly appear to be hardier if they manage to get by their first few years.
This survey is an opportunity for respondents to add their examples of successful bootstrap sources of finance and to learn from others what they have attempted and how it has worked out.
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