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9
Bootstrap
I
n this chapter, you learn about bootstrapping, the most expedient and least
risky path to launching and growing your business with limited financial re-
sources. Bootstrapping is one of the great visual words in the English language.
Imagine pulling yourself up off the ground by the straps of your own boots,
resulting in your upward trajectory in defiance of gravity. Seems impossible?
And yet, that is often the best way to get started and to grow your business. I,
along with countless other entrepreneurs, have bootstrapped. Bootstrapping
is the process of conserving financial resources to the extreme, mostly doing
the needed tasks yourself, to get your business up and running.
The Bootstrapping of Plastechnology
In Chapter 6, Mark Greene and Larry Quinn were riddled with indecision. Is
Plastechnology an opportunity? If so, what were their next steps? Which of
the four scenarios actually played out? Here’s what happened. You may have
already guessed that I was Mark Greene and my real partner, Len Cohen, was
given the pseudonym of Larry Quinn. Plastechnology was the case study of
the actual start-up of our injection-molding company. Len and I were trying
to decide whether to buy the equipment at an upcoming auction. It was not an
easy decision because the machinery was old, dismantled, ...