Hi guys.
I'm looking to launch my business soon, but i'm of strapped for cash so i'm bootstrapping and keeping costs as low as possible until i make the first few sales e.g i'm going to be using paypal for payments, wordpress and free plugins/themes for the site, social media for advertising etc.
Incorporating, merchant accounts and other expenses can come later.
I'm only looking to spend money where absolutely necessary to begin with- so hosting, domain name and email auto-responder. These arn't very expensive anyway.
I believe my business has massive potential, fitting the 5 fastlane commandments and i was shocked that there isn't anyone doing it already (for all i know there could be someone working on it). I want to get things going as quickly as possible before others see what i'm doing and try to copy/compete with me.
One things im uncertain about is whether i should begin immediately, or try and save up some cash first to give me the best chance of success.
Heres an example: I was listening to an interview recently and i found out that there were many startups that launched without having their perfect domain name available. Dropbox started as getdropbox.com and when groupon came up with the perfect name (group + coupon = groupon) they discovered that the domain name was already taken. They were using groupon.thepoint.com but registered "groupon" as a trademark which screwed the guy who owned the domain. He could no longer legally do anything with it (funnily enough he ended up selling it for £250k or something and perhaps thats more than he'd have made with it anyway).
I have a great domain name and i'm paranoid that someone might pull the same trick when they see me in the initial launch stage, or that someone with more capital will see my idea but launch faster through media buys while i'm trying to build my list organically.
Am I being paranoid? Should I just bootstrap and take on the risks i have mentioned, or wait (i have my exams in 5 weeks, then id need to work and save for a few months at least) and increase my chances of success.
I'm looking to launch my business soon, but i'm of strapped for cash so i'm bootstrapping and keeping costs as low as possible until i make the first few sales e.g i'm going to be using paypal for payments, wordpress and free plugins/themes for the site, social media for advertising etc.
Incorporating, merchant accounts and other expenses can come later.
I'm only looking to spend money where absolutely necessary to begin with- so hosting, domain name and email auto-responder. These arn't very expensive anyway.
I believe my business has massive potential, fitting the 5 fastlane commandments and i was shocked that there isn't anyone doing it already (for all i know there could be someone working on it). I want to get things going as quickly as possible before others see what i'm doing and try to copy/compete with me.
One things im uncertain about is whether i should begin immediately, or try and save up some cash first to give me the best chance of success.
Heres an example: I was listening to an interview recently and i found out that there were many startups that launched without having their perfect domain name available. Dropbox started as getdropbox.com and when groupon came up with the perfect name (group + coupon = groupon) they discovered that the domain name was already taken. They were using groupon.thepoint.com but registered "groupon" as a trademark which screwed the guy who owned the domain. He could no longer legally do anything with it (funnily enough he ended up selling it for £250k or something and perhaps thats more than he'd have made with it anyway).
I have a great domain name and i'm paranoid that someone might pull the same trick when they see me in the initial launch stage, or that someone with more capital will see my idea but launch faster through media buys while i'm trying to build my list organically.
Am I being paranoid? Should I just bootstrap and take on the risks i have mentioned, or wait (i have my exams in 5 weeks, then id need to work and save for a few months at least) and increase my chances of success.
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