Rich explains why building a business gave him more control over his destiny. 

Control Your Destiny

I started my career thinking that a corporate job would provide both security and financial stability. As I was climbing the corporate ladder at Novell, I was convinced that I would pay off my home and retire with the stock options this burgeoning company offered me. By the time I left, those options were worthless.

I did learn a lot of lessons on someone else’s dime, but I also made a lot of other people rich. One year, I received an end-of-the-year bonus of $10,000. I thought this was a lot of money until I learned that my boss had received a $1-million bonus—off of my work!

I found the same thing to be true with others I knew. One friend opened the Latin American market for his company, growing that market from $0 to $50 million in four short years. His reward? A four percent raise!

I also witnessed, over and over again, that corporations simply have no loyalty to their employees—only to their shareholders. I came to realize that as an employee, the idea of security in companies large and small is a myth! It took several years, but I finally discovered that the best path to taking control of my financial and personal future was to create my own businesses.

Today, no one can lay me off. I receive the direct rewards of my own success. I also get to decide how much risk I want to take. In the past I had to be ready to fly across the country or the world at a moment’s notice. Now I decide when and where I travel. I used to have nine vacation days a year. Now I determine when and where I work.

Do I work any less? Definitely not—in fact, I probably work more. But I control my work instead of having my work control me. As a result, I have the ability to enjoy the more meaningful and important things in my life—and to do it on my terms.

Bootstrapped! goes beyond simply telling a person how to start a business; indeed, it promotes the values of achieving balance, reaching for purposes higher than amassing wealth, and investing time and resources into those parts of a person’s life that matter the most.

That does it for the introduction!  We’ll drive straight into Chapter 1: Grit next week!

Once Rich decided it was time to get a life, he moved ahead with dogged determination.  He continues his story below…..

Build a Business

Since completing my MBA, I have founded or co-founded 27 businesses. Each of these ventures was bootstrapped with less than $10,000 of initial capital. Nine have been outright failures. Seven have been moderately successful, four are in process, and seven have become multimillion dollar businesses.

Countless times, while launching these companies, I have wished for a reference book or mentor to help me avoid the big mistakes. Fellow entrepreneurs were happy and willing to help with advice, but none could completely articulate the factors that had led to their success. In my search for the right reference guide, I found numerous, well-written books that were either bulging with theory or focused on high-end businesses with startup budgets of over a million dollars, but nothing credible for the person with a dream, unbridled ambition, and only a few thousand dollars.

Most people who aspire to start their own enterprises cannot cobble together the millions such books suggest are needed to launch a business. Understanding that, and drawing from my own experiences of bootstrapping businesses, I outline with Bootstrapped! how it is that a person can take $5,000 and build it into a multimillion dollar business.

When my partner and coauthor, Ron Porter, and I first started writing this book, we decided to create a company as a test case to prove the principles we are setting forth. We each came to the table with $2,500 and started Everest Web SEO, a company built around search engine optimization. Within the first few months, we had won deals with S&K Menswear, Warner Music Group, Franklin Covey, Shop At Home, and The New York Times. During these early months, we generated over $70,000 in total sales, with net profit margins of approximately 85 percent. Six months into the business, we merged with a New York online marketing firm, Interactive Acquisition, forming a new company, CastleWave, LLC. At the end of seven months, our monthly revenue was at $70,000 a month, with a $40,000-per-month net profit. At the time of making this book available, we just completed the first year of business. We now have sixteen employees. As of October 2008 CastleWave is generating approximately $110,000 of revenue per month at over 65 percent net margin. All indicators point to this business growing at an accelerated level.

Bootstrapped! combines the art form that is found in any entrepreneurial venture with practical, step-by-step guidelines that a person can—and really must—follow in building a successful enterprise with a minimal amount of capital. We share real-life examples, followed by extracting the steps you must be mindful of in building a business. The book is at once, engaging, entertaining, and motivating, even as it leads a person through proven formulas that lead to success.

You can see why people are getting excited about this book!  We’ll finish the introduction to the book next time, as Rich wraps up his opening thoughts on controlling your destiny. 

I’ve mentioned before that Rich is a serial entrepreneur, having started almost 30 companies in his life, but haven’t really told the story of how he got started – originally.  Rich opens the book by describing the life experiences that led him to entrepreneurship, or in his words, how he ‘got a life’….

Get a Life!

At the age of five, my workday started in the early twilight hours of the evening. I would drag my parents’ faded garden hose out and let the cold mountain water loose on the front lawn. A thorough soaking was all I needed to procure my product. I then crawled across the saturated lawn, pulling reluctant night crawlers from their earthy habitat.

My marketing manager, Mom, helped me paint a huge yellow sign depicting the happiest, juiciest worm imaginable. A large red arrow worthy of any Las Vegas casino pointed potential customers to our house. As advertising demands required, I hauled the sign down to the canyon road in the morning and propped it up against an old cottonwood tree in an effort to attract the attention of anglers on their way to favorite fishing holes.

I don’t recall which aspect of the venture was more invigorating: digging out worms or collecting the 50 cents for a dozen night crawlers. Regardless, before my sixth birthday I had swallowed the bait of being my own boss—hook, line, and sinker.

At the age of 32 I found myself working as the General Manager of USA Operations for Mitsubishi Electric, PC division. My MBA and my BS in Electronic Engineering Technology were behind me. Working my way up several corporate ladders, I experienced big wins with Novell, Mitsubishi Electric, and About.com.

Along the way I discovered my natural aptitude for leading teams, particularly while kicking off new and innovative technology products. These successes filled me with a sense of accomplishment, and I valued the knowledge gained from the experiences. However, I grew increasingly dissatisfied with the politics and red tape and felt held back by the rigid, unresponsive nature of big corporations in general. At a fundamental level, I craved facing the market forces eyeball to eyeball.

Even amid my success in the corporate world, I eventually came to see that corporate life had begun to demand more than it offered. I knew a decision had to be made. I knew that it was time to return to my roots. That it was time to get a life!

And that’s just what he did – we’ll pick back up with Rich’s experiences in building businesses in the next blog!

The voting is in, and in a 3 – 1 landslide, the formal title of the book is Bootstrapped! A No Bull Solution for Small Business Success.  Today is the day we begin blogging the book, section by section!  Just so you’re aware of what people are saying about the book, I’d like to start off with some of the fun and interesting endorsements we’ve received. 

“This book attacks business creation with the same vigor and discipline that I climb mountains.  I love how Rich has tied in the analogies of mountain climbing to business creation.  If your desire is to reach the summit of small business ownership, don’t try it with out this survival guide.  The book is simple, straight forward, and spot on!”

Ed Viesturs, High Altitude Climber – who’s reached the summit of all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen – and author of No Shortcuts To The Top

“This book is the one of the most practical, sound and wise investments you will ever make in your small business.  Buy it, study it, use it—and prosper!”

Joseph Grenny, New York Times Bestselling co-author of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.

“I read the book cover-to-cover and then immediately started recommending it to everyone I am in business with and do business with.”

Garrett B. Gunderson, New York Times Bestselling Author of Killing Sacred Cows.

As you can see, we’re building a lot of momentum around the book and are excited to get it published in the next couple of months.  That being said, let’s get started on the content – enjoy!

Introduction

Bootstrap Your Way to Success

Most books on entrepreneurship focus on obtaining venture capital and writing a business plan. They are sterile, academic, and non-actionable, unless a person has access to considerable assets at the outset. “Bootstrapped!” grows out of a proven process for taking $5,000 and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to become a successful company.

“Bootstrapped!” is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is not an enticement to attend a “free” seminar where you will be goaded into buying products and services guaranteed to make you millions. It is a self-contained book that will explore the authors’ experiences in launching companies that have failed and companies that have generated millions in returns. And it is a book that will show readers the steps they must follow to do the same.

Among its many unique features, “Bootstrapped!” encourages people to build a business from where they are: often on the side, as they continue their full-time employment and strategically plan their transition to full-time business ownership.

A Recipe Book for Success

Rich has mentored countless would-be entrepreneurs, in addition to starting almost 30 of his own businesses. These experiences have revealed a pattern of questions and processes. “Bootstrapped!” sets forth powerful principles from real people who have bootstrapped businesses. It organizes those principles in such a way that they are both motivational and as easy to follow as a trusted family recipe.

True Entrepreneurial Freedom

In these crazy economic times, the greatest job security available to an individual is to own a business. One of the major drivers for most people is the desire to become their own boss. “Bootstrapped!” clarifies that entrepreneurship does offer the freedom so many seek, but that it also demands accountability. Most important, the book teaches how to balance the demands of business ownership with personal relationships.

Chapter Format

Each chapter has three sections as described below:

1. Porter’s Preface – Introduction to the chapter and the concepts taught within the chapter. This introduction is set up and written by Ron Porter
2. Chapter Body – Rich Christiansen teaches the principles and key points of the chapter using engaging stories and real-life experiences.
3. Porter’s Points – Ron wraps up each section by articulating actionable take-away items.

Stay tuned on Thursday for the next section!