Many Sauder alumni who became entrepreneurs recently visited our COMM 101 classes. Many of them also mentioned initially bootstrapping their business when they first began (ex. Paul from Tangoo). This post responds to an entry on the external Business blog, Quora, regarding the mechanics of bootstrapping a business. The reason this article caught my eye was because turned the term “Boootstrap” into an acronym teaching people how to go abouts the endeavour. Here’s what the blogger came up with:
B-uild your audience early
O-ptimize social media
O-ffer unusual freebies
BOOTS!
T-ie up with influential connections and partners
S-ponsor events
T-estimonials
R-eferral program
A-wareness campaign
P-itch to reporters and bloggers
What was really interesting for me to see was that many of the ideas the blogger suggested had channels via the internet. This truly demonstrates the importance and presence of utilizing social media and the internet as a marking tool in today’s society. Further, another theme that I acknowledged was that another main purpose of bootstrapping is to create an awareness for the company or product your are starting up. Many of the channels suggested are avenues to generate publicity, thus building up a consumer base that will eventually purchase the product or service. The suggestions brought up in the external blog were all thoughtful and relevant and can be used even in many cases that we deal with in COMM 101.