Page 30 - The Bootstrapper Bible

ChangeThis start mowing lawns in your exclusive subdivision, the second person doesnʼt get a chance to solve someoneʼs lawn problem—youʼve already done that. Instead, the second guy has to hope that he can undercharge or overdeliver enough to dislodge you from your spot. THEY SHOULD BE SELF-PRIMING. One of the giant traps bootstrappers fall into is inventing 3 business models that donʼt prime themselves. If you want to sell razor blades, for example, youʼve got to get a whole bunch of people to buy them. Without a lot of razors out there that can use your blade, you lose. Is it possible to build a paradigm-shifting business with just a little money? Sure. Itʼs been done before. But nine times out of ten, youʼll fail. Why? Because youʼre gonna run out of money before you change the world. Don Katz started a business called Audible that allows you to download books on tape from the Internet. So you can find a novel youʼve always wanted to hear, type in your credit card number, and listen to it. The challenge Don faces, though, is that you need to buy a $150 Audible player to hear it. Without the player, it doesnʼt work. So, in order to sell the books on tape (which is how he makes money), he first has to sell the player (on which he loses money). This is a business model for brave people! Our friendly ice cream vendor has a self-priming business. Sure, he has to lay out some cash for that first truck and for the first batch of ice cream sandwiches, but after that it ought to pay for its own growth. Sell $100 worth of ice cream for $200, and you have enough money to buy yourself two cases of ice cream. 4 THEY SHOULD BE ADJUSTABLE. Remember how excited everyone got about the missiles the U.S. used during the Gulf War? Here was a weapon you could aim after you launched it. You could adjust the flight along the way. You need a business model like that if youʼre hoping to maximize your chances of success. If youʼve got to lock it, load it, and launch it, youʼre going to be doing more praying than you need to. | iss. 6.01 | i | U | X | + | h 30/103 f