Four Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned Through Bootstrapping A Startup Making the case for how you can build resilience and ownership in startup growth by bootstrapping your venture.

My name is Bridget Harris and I am an entrepreneur.

It sounds funny to admit, but a few years ago I didn't see myself like this. I described what we were doing at my company, YouCanBookMe, as 'developing a web app', 'growing a product', 'building a team'.

I felt that only big shots like Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey could call themselves entrepreneurs. I'm not talking about imposter syndrome, I'm just describing what it feels like to have built a bootstrapped business for over a decade, and still not getting that feeling of being 'done'.

I imagined it would only be until we've become a public company, or been acquired, or become a leading tool in our vertical, that I would be able to claim the badge of being a successful entrepreneur.

But being a business owner means you are an entrepreneur.

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You are taking risks all the time, and you are leading a company of people who want to contribute in a meaningful way to your vision. You are serving today's customers and preparing for tomorrow's customers. You need to manage resources, especially your own time, and have patience and immense resilience.

You need to know how to get something off the ground; something from nothing.

Today, we have bootstrapped YouCanBookMe, a Bedford-based online scheduling tool, to US$5.4 million (GBP4.1 million) annual rate of return (ARR). Over 10 years we have definitely experienced the highs and lows of a business from the ground up across a plethora of areas including product development, cash flow, bank debt, hiring, expansion, feature bloat, pivoting, marketing, customer support, research and development, and selling in an international market.

One of the biggest milestones for us as a business was turning profitable in 2017. We had to make a profit because, to this day, we've never experienced raising any investment capital.

I know that investors can offer immense value to prospective founders. There's no doubt that some startups might never reach first base without investment from angels, families and friends.

But for us, we had already been experimenting over 10 years launching minimal viable products (MVPs) and products that we hoped would take off. So in 2011, when YouCanBookMe did take off, we were able to trust in our cash flow to keep building, and were lucky not to have to rely on investment.

Put it another way, our customers invested in us instead.

Running a business, being an entrepreneur, is to work out how to build a product or service that adds value to customers in a market. Ideally, you are offering a novel solution to a problem that means people will rush to pay you for your efforts. Getting to product market fit (PMF) isn't just about throwing 10 solutions at the wall and seeing what might stick (as in the venture capital-funded investor model), it's about listening intently to customers and following their stories about what they are trying to achieve and modeling your business around them.

But there are some key lessons I've learned along the way that apply to any business starting out and wanting to grow:

1. People, People, People People can make or break your business. You will have to hire, fire, cajole, learn from and listen to, and check in and collaborate with other people in your business.

From a bootstrapper's point of view, we had an excellent constraint (limited money) that allowed us to make potential hiring mistakes slowly. Being able to offer huge onboarding packages to expensive sixfigure hires, courtesy of an investor check, can often be the quickest way to see that money and effort go down the drain.

I have also always felt a sense of accountability that the money we pay people with has come from our customers. It's come from selling a first-class product that we are proud of and we don't want to squander that income on the wrong people.

2. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution A couple of years ago, I could see that the product we had originally built in 2011 had started to take on a life of its own. We had somehow departed from the close customer-feedback loop that would keep it relevant and build a vision beyond 2024.

We had started building solutions to solve our own internal 'YouCanBookMe problems', rather than 'customer problems'. This just becomes another name for busy work, where a whole team is working super hard and dedicated to the task, but actually treading water in business terms.

By re-focussing our efforts in the last 18 months on understanding the problem we are solving (finding a time for people to meet) and how we serve our Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) we've significantly repositioned our product and business.

This is hard work, as it involves bringing people with you, getting the data you need to validate the changes, and offering an alternative vision everyone can get behind as a team.

3. Operations and compliance is a beautiful thing I am not a fan of the chaos theory of creation. I understand you can get lots of energy from wild whiteboard sessions and everyone pulling all-nighters to put their products and businesses together. There are also lots of founders who are parents, or are traveling, or have other constraints and they need the flexibility to work a 24-hour clock. But you can't sustain chaos for more than a few years.

However, in my experience, a solid grip on your policies and procedures can be a company life saver. I would say this even if you are a solopreneur and have zero plans to expand. Have a plan- get an operating manual together.

4. Try to describe your business so it's separate from 'you' Once you've found good boundaries for yourself and business, you can also offer clarity and structure to your customers: when you work, who you work for, what you offer, and what you charge. When you have documented and systemized what you do, you will find that it becomes a foundational tool for you to grow your business.

I am now comfortable with the label "entrepreneur." I can see that that is what I am, whether I like it or not. The journey is definitely the point -not the destination- but I'll let you know if I ever get there!

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