Bootstrapping

I’ve mentioned previously that I am, at least currently, a one-woman operation here at List Central. I am positive that I can build List Central into something that can sustain itself. The initial costs are are coming out of my pocket, thus, I am keeping the costs to a minimum until the point comes when List Central can afford more with the income it generates. In time, I want to see List Central grow into a larger business that employs talented people, until then, I’m bootstrapping it!

What is bootstrapping you ask? Bootstrapping is a “self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help” [Wikipedia April 20th, 2009]

In The Bootstrapper’s Bible Seth Godin outlines The Bootstrapper’s Manifesto and provides a road map for first time bootstrappers. Ready Godin’s e-book was a real turning point for me and List Central, as I got real excitement and motivation from it’s digital pages. The Bootstrapper’s Bible helped me by:

• Showed me that I was far from alone in my quest
• Gave me valuable tools to help me meet my goals
• Inspired me with confidence
• Convinced me to be persistent through the many challenges of bootstrapping a new business
• Told me the name for what I was doing: Bootstrapping!

Free copies of Seth Godin’s e-book “The Bootstrapper’s Bible” are still available, so grab yourself a copy while you still can!

Elevator Pitch - Going Up?

Elevator Pitch:

“An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words).”

[Wikipedia April 6th 2009 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch]

Typically the ‘elevator pitch’ is intended for possible funding sources, such as Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors. For me, I’m not intending to go out for funding for List Central, I’m bootstrapping this one the whole way, but I have still found the need to hone my elevator pitch. There are many occasions when a quick, succinct, and intriguing summary of your project is needed.  Networking events, social events with friends and family who want to know how you spend your time, discussions with potential collaborators, and  attracting future users. Darren Rowse, of Problogger, suggests to the students of his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge that the most important reason to compose an elevator pitch is to ensure that “YOU as a blogger to have thought through and crystallised in your mind what your blog is about“. I must say, I agree with him, both for bloggers, and for small business owners who aren’t necessarily looking for funding such as myself.

With all of this in mind, I set out to write my elevator pitch for List Central. What do you think of it? Le me know in the comments, because I would love to know.

List Central Elevator Pitch

An emerging publishing platform found somewhere between blogging, and micro-blogging to be known as List-blogging. With the social ranking of Digg, the utility of  Remember the Milk, the link and image sharing  Delicious and Flickr and the content ownership of Facebook, coming together to create a niche online social community and utility for people who love lists.

The flexible interface enables users to create, manage, and share lists of any variety, for the purpose of fun, organization, online social interaction, and even self-promotion. With both public and private lists, List Central allows users to organize their thoughts, work flow and life management, while also having fun sharing lists with others. Bloggers will find List Central to be particularly beneficial, as it can be used both to organizing blogging activities, and to promoting posts in a new and interesting way.

Created by a creative and highly motivated web-prenuer who is skilled in the fields of web development and design, and is eager to build List Central into a much loved loved corner of the Internet for a wide variety of users.

The Business Plan

It took me a good long time to diligently put together a business plan for List Central. I’ve been stubborn about wanting to Bootstrap this project, and have no intention of look for funding. The initial costs are coming out of my pocket, and I’m keeping them as low as I can until List Central starts earning it’s keep.

The fact that I will not be approaching potential investors does not negate the need for a business plan, it does, however, change the role of the document. In many ways writing my business plan, without investors in mind, made the task much easier. I was free to focus on the conponents of the document that are integral to planning and executing the business, rather than worry about what will impress. There was no need for me to follow some externally established standard on what a business plan should be. It was just me writing out the parameters of my business.

I recommend all other entreprenuers put in the time to put together a business plan. It really does help in organizing your thoughts and outlining a direction.  The process of writing a business plan forces you to face some big questions, mainly ‘How will the whole money thing work?’. A sometimes daungting questions, which needs to be addressed nonetheless. The end product serves as a valuable point of reference to return to when you need reminders. I find it useful to reread the plan every few weeks to ensure I’m still on track, and to make any adjustments to the plan that are required as a result of change… you can always bet on change!

In writing the business plan for List Central I knew that I had to include certain components in order to write something that would be valuable to me, but beyond that, I did really know how to proceede. So I went to the Small Business BC website and perused their sample business plans. From that I was able to come up with a suitable outline of the sections I needed for my plan. After that, all I had to do was fill in the sections.

Every business plan is different, as each represents it’s own business in a particular phase. It may be tempting to copy another business plan to get it out of the way, but really, doing this robs the entreprenuer of a valuable opportunity to really delve into the aims of his or her business, and bring the tough questions up to the surface. Every business would only benefit from it’s entreprenuer devoting time to write a business plan devoted to it, no matter the size or industry of the business, nor the intended audience of the plan.