Better Bootstrap
Being an entrepreneur takes guts. It takes a great idea that has an adequate market; an effective strategy; marketing that attracts people and a sales process that converts them to clients; well-oiled operations that provide dazzling customer service and run routine parts of the business; and financial reporting, forecasting and controls to address the cash and growth needs of the company. It takes a strong stomach, the ability to solve problems quickly and the persistence of a locomotive. What it often doesn’t take is venture capital.
Better Bootstrap is an informal network that supports entrepreneurs who are Bootstrapping their businesses. The organizers started Better Bootstrap to offer entrepreneurs encouragement and a different perspective than the frequent perception that “my business needs venture capital.” Many businesses don’t. A wise approach to spending along with robust management of key strategic, operational, marketing and financial factors within a business can power most companies to success just as readily.
Meetings
Monthly Dutch-treat meetings offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to hear war stories—and inside accounts of what it took to succeed— from experienced entrepreneurs who developed businesses using the resources that were available to them: money from personal finances, friends, family or bank loans; dogged belief in their offering; deluxe working conditions in a spare room, warehouse or simple office; unflagging persistence; and smart, diligent management.
Each free meeting also covers, briefly, a fundamental business concern.
Topics might include:
- - How to work on all parts of your business (strategy, operations, marketing and finance) continuously
- - How to develop appropriate pricing for your offering- Ways to increase cash flow
- - Using your “elevator pitch” as a starting point for all your marketing
- - Ways to leverage high quality open-source technology to save money
- - What to measure within your company, and why
- - How to get out of “firefighting mode”
- - Ways to market effectively without advertising
- - How to maintain a strategic focus when there is so much to do
Finally, open networking among Better Bootstrap meeting participants will enable CEOs to learn from their peers’ experiences.
Next Meeting
Nov. 2, 2010
5:45 PM - 7:00 PM
Hatcher & Fell Photography
1208 7th Ave., Nashville
Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson is President of LightWave Solar Electric LLC, a firm he started in a spare bedroom in 2006 and later remodeled a shed into an office to keep overhead low. The company initially kept salaries low and benefits negligible, focusing on cash flow planning to ensure the firm’s viability. Part of LightWave’s strategy is to maintain close contact with vendors and to pay them promptly, facilitating supplier credit lines for use when necessary.
Steve is the second NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer in Tennessee and has been in the electrical construction business for over 30 years with experience in solar PV dating back to 1998. LightWave Solar holds an unlimited Tennessee Electrical Contractors License that includes a solar panel installation designation.
Steve has worked closely with TVA on the development of the Generation Partners program and designed and installed the first TN-CET awards in the state for businesses. LightWave Solar provided the first solar interconnection for 17 of TVA’s electrical distributors.
Steve is the 2007 recipient of the Tennessee Million Solar Roofs "Solar Star" award for his contributions in the solar electrical field in Tennessee and is President of the Tennessee Solar Energy Association (TSEA).
You can learn more about Steve’s work at www.lightwavesolarelectric.com.
Better bootstrap is
- - A place for entrepreneurs with active businesses and for people who are trying to start businesses to learn from the wins, mistakes and regrets of experienced entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped their businesses
- - A place where bootstrapping entrepreneurs can network with and learn from each other
- - A place for bootstrappers to hear about some business fundamentals that they might be overlooking in their businesses
Better Bootstrap Is Not
- - A place for people who want to sell services or products to entrepreneurs
- - A membership organization
- - A legal entity
- - A good fit for multi-level marketers
Better Bootstrap Does Not Provide
- - Business consulting of any type
- - Legal counsel
- - Accounting or tax
- - Planning advice
- - Any other sort of advice
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