According to CB Insights, the cost of launching a Startup decreased by 1000% in 10 years. It used to cost entrepreneurs approximately $5 million to launch a startup in 2000, it costs less than $5000 today thanks to open source software and cloud based tools. In other words, nowadays, you don’t need a $100 thousand software for your code to be written or your products to be marketed. Today, if you need a project management tool, a server, analytics, etc. you don’t need to build your own, you can just pay for only as much as you consume.

Using existing, self-generated and acquired resources to take an idea or company from one point to the other without referring to investors or banks is what we refer to as bootstrapping. Over 90% of entrepreneurs are bootstrapped. In fact, according to research findings by Fundable, less than 1% of startups get funded. Yes, less than 0.05% of startups get at least one round of VC investment while 0.91% are angel funded. This is this low for many reasons, some of it are obvious.

First, there is limited funding so the existing funds will go to the teams that are most likely to bring back a bigger chunk of money to the investors. Second, expect no one to pay for trial and error. When you initiate a new startup venture, you’re trying to find your way out of a maze. You’re looking for the right solution to the identified problem and only after some trials and errors will you find the fit. The founder pool is becoming extremely competitive that investors are leaning towards those teams that find their way out of the maze and are ready to build something big. Initially, you have no option but to get lost, get your hands dirty and prove the viability of your idea.

I have many bootstrapping strategies that I’d like to share with you to equip you with the needed information to build your startup under limited to no budget, today, I am going to share 3.

Take Advantage of Existing Tools

Numbers don’t lie. CB Insights associate cloud based tools and open source software to the steep decline in startup initiation and development costs. For instance, instead of Hiring a freelancer to design your startup logo, Logojoy does it for as low as little as $20 and as good as hiring a professional designer which can cost over $500; that’s what I recall I was quoted 8 years ago when I started my first venture. Other tools and platforms for hosting, analytics, finance and accounting, social media management, etc. can help you minimize your expenses by at least 60% in comparison to what it would cost you to hire a person or team for each service. At StartupCircle.co, we partnered with over 100 of the best tools in the market to offer discounted products for our member entrepreneurs. For discounted and free products to help you minimize initial and operating expenses, join EntrePerks.

Pre-Selling Your Upcoming Solution

Did you know Bill Gates sold Altair on software that didn’t exist until the company showed a lot of interest in buying it so he built it in response to their demand, sold it to them and used some of the funds to start Microsoft?

With as little as a prototype or even designs, don’t hesitate to pre-sell your upcoming product even at a deep discount. This will not only help you secure some funds for reinvestment, but also it is a way to prove the need for your solution. If people really need it, they won’t mind pre-paying for it. The same model is used by Crowdfunding sites.

Start Something You Can Build

The best-case scenario is when you start startup ventures where you can contribute to the development of the core product without seeking outside help. In this case, you’ll be able to take the idea to advanced levels without hiring team members which tends to be one of the costliest expenses in a startup. In other words, if you are a non-technical founder looking to build a business to business financial tech platform, you will have hard time if possible at all to pursue your venture without hiring talented programmers. In fact, the venture capital firm First Round Capital found that for enterprise solutions, technical founders outperform non-technical teams by 230%. Pick your battles.

Viber, Braintree Payments, Qualtrics, Basecamp and many other multimillion dollar companies bootstrapped their way up to success. It’s been proven and it will be proven again. You can be the next story we share.

Abdo Riani is the founder of StartupCircle.co and AspireIT. Hs ventures focus on providing entrepreneurs with the needed resources to turn ideas into viable and scalable startups. Follow him on Twitter and get in touch with him at AbdoRiani.com.

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