Fergus Dyer-Smith

(I should say at the outset this post was inspired by Ross Kimbarovsky recent video post and in fact the last two points ring very similar)

So Wooshii has been running now for around 6 months and I thought I would share some of the lessons learned. These are personal thoughts and relate obviously to my specific case. I do think however that there are lessons in here for anyone who is thinking of starting a new business.

Here at Wooshii although we have raised a very small amount of seed capital we are really boot strapping this business. The three founders all have other business that we keep ticking over in order to keep us alive. This brings with it whole host of challenges,

Why Bootstrap?

• It gives you a chance to turn an idea into a business and thus give it some value
• There is no better market research than actually selling your service
• Your proposition is a whole load more investable in if you have already built the product, gained the patent, made some sales or built and worked with a team
• It ingrains a frugal culture and ensures that only people passionate about your business are involved
• Expensive mistakes are cheap

How to make it work

1. Do something you love – If you’re not it will it will be twice as difficult to stick at it when you’re working at 2 am for next to nothing

2. With people who are great – Great people around you will inspire, share your vision, pick you up when you are down and add to number one.

3. Pull in some early heavy weights – We raised a tiny amount of seed capital for 2 reasons. One of those was so that we had a number of heavy weight players that both gave us credibility and contacts as well as a board that reminds you this is a serious proposition

4. Work out what you can drop – Simply put something has to give, especially if you are still having to work on other projects to keep this business alive. For me it was simple I was not prepared to drop family time or surfing BUT everything else TV, crafts, evenings out, holidays has gone. (Again having a good number one helps again here)

5. Have a plan – If your business to is scalable then you cannot bootstrap forever. You will need outside funding. So have a plan. Set dates at which you will start seeking funding and targets to achieve by those dates that will make your business even more attractive.