Bootstrapping: What it is...

When i first heard the word bootstrapping?......It caught me unawared that the next moment, i was checking it in the dictionary. I got in contact with that word when trying to search for more information about a small business start-up that i was being consulted on about two years ago. Days after, i teased couple of friends over dinner to know what they thought it meant.Guess what?...they all got it wrong.
So what does it mean: Bootstrapping is simply a way of starting up a business without the use of external funding. Bootsrapping is simply the use of a great idea to minimize the startup capital a would-be enterpreneur needs in other to start up a business. From many hours of surfing online,I discovered that various online and internet businesses are actually created through bootstrapping methods without the need for a huge financial capital. One of such is Dell Computers, which specially made the use of an idea of direct selling from Manufacturer to consumer a mida's touch.
Many other businesses have made use of a simple idea to generate so much money either through the use of technology or a simple logic that details it. Bill gates as well did a bit of bootstrapping( Thats my own thought) when he licensed IBM to make use of it proprietary software. He could as well have sold the entire software to IBM but he saw a potential in the vast market that IBM controls.
While so many indivdual wants to jumpstart a business, they find it quite difficult due to lack of capital. With a book like The Bootstappers Bible, there is light at the end of the tunnel. After consuming the Bootstrappers Bible by Seth Godin, i was a completely changed person as it clearly reveal a different perspective to entrepreneurship that i had never experienced or thought before.
It was a really an eye opener that details the other side of enterprenurship that i never saw. Seth is a best sellng author and he holds an MBA from Stanford. He was once called "The ultimate Enterpreneur for the information Age" by business week. To cash in on this as well, you can download a copy of the Bootstrappers bible here.