How to bootstrap your startup without losing your sanity (part 2)

The author, Anthony Coundouris, is the founder of accounting and analytics firm Futurebooks. A version of this article was first published on the Futurebooks blog.

Making revenue in a free world can be daunting when you have to pay rent and salaries. But if you decide to bootstrap your business, you are not alone. 85% of startups worldwide fund their startup idea by consulting and contracting their labour. 20% of Futurebooks clients bootstrap their companies.

To make the process hopefully a little easier, here’s a two-part guide on how your startup can do well without funding from investors (read part one). We explore the feelings you will have to grapple with when bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping feels like 25,000 feet

When you are spending your own money to back your idea, you are bound to experience feelings of uncertainty.

Bootstrapping a company in the first year is like being pushed out of a plane at 25,000 feet with no parachute.

You expect to hit the ground at any moment and splatter, but you don’t. Instead of hitting the ground in a few seconds, you fall for days, weeks, months.

If you have ever done a course in investing in stocks, instructors will teach you how to emotionally control yourself when the value of your stock portfolio is falling. This is an important lesson in the psychology of dealing with uncertainty.

The cure is simple: Try to make a sale. A sale can be a paid or unpaid. The key is get someone using your product. A sale is confirmation you are heading the right way, and that your crazy, insane idea is valued by others.

Bootstrapping feels like you’re being punched

Everyday your startup baby blatantly reminds you about how ill-prepared you are for the task ahead.

It is also like an aggressive coach that relentlessly hurls abuse from the sidelines each time you make a mistake. By the end of the match, you are psychologically bruised.

The attacks can be relentless. Your startup gives you feedback about everything you’re doing wrong. Activities you’re not good at include sales, making appointments, keeping appointments, email marketing, SEO, writing presentations, writing web content, cutting html code, public relations, investor relations, bookkeeping, and reading financial statements.

You adapt by becoming a generalist, hire generalists, and along the way, figure out what you can eventually delegate.

Why founders fail quit

50% of startups will not survive to see a second year of trading. The combination of uncertainty and self-criticism causes 50 percent of startups in the first year not to fail, but to quit. The founder(s) simply cannot live at 25,000 feet, or take the daily punches.

Not all founders are suited for bootstrapping