ProfBruce's definitions
Also known as self-capitalization, this is how most start-ups actually capitalize themselves. Sources of bootstrap capital include: soft capital (Mom/Dad/Rich Uncle Buck), home equity loans, supplier credit, consulting, credit cards, retainers, deposits, progress payments, receivables factoring, partners, sponsorships, guarantors, pre-sales, launch clients and more. Bootstrap capital allows the ownership to keep control of their own enterprises and not lose them to VCs and other debt or equity holders.
“Two former students decide to start a home building business. They have no capital so they: 1. find a friendly landowner who allows them to set up shop in a field and pre-sell homes with no money up front to the landowner (who gets paid when the homes sell); 2. they pre-sell 10 homes and take deposits of $20,000 per home so now they have $200,000 in their bank account; 3. they get 90 and 120 day terms from their suppliers so that the suppliers also get paid when the homes sell; 4. they take their 10 Agreements of Purchase and Sale and pledge those to the Bank for a LOC (effectively borrowing their clients' credit scores). After two years, they have $800,000 in the Bank and own 100% of the business. This example demonstrates five sources of bootstrap capital: supplier credit, pre-sales, launch clients, deposits and guarantors.”
by ProfBruce October 31, 2009
Get the Bootstrap Capitalmug. Where consumers band together online to influence, collectively, the price of a good or service, a form of social shopping and reverse pricing.
A website or mobile app that reduces the prices of its products or services for every like or tweet that potential customers generate as a group is using a form of social commerce. Or when consumers get their friends to buy a sufficient number of ecommerce coupons, they are engaged in social commerce. In effect, consumers are banding together online to influence the price at which they are willing to buy and companies are paying their customers to do their marketing for them.
by ProfBruce May 7, 2011
Get the Social Commercemug. The moral underpinnings of being or becoming an entrepreneur include: 1. take care of your business, 2. so your business can take care of your family, 3. so your family can take care of you, 4. so you do not become a burden on your fellow human being or the state, 5. so you are in a position to help your fellow human being and 6. so they can help your business.
When you give a person a fishing rod instead of a fish, you have started him or her on the road to self reliance which is the sine qua non of entrepreneur ethics.
by ProfBruce April 21, 2011
Get the entrepreneur ethicsmug. When brands agree to cross-promote each other. In effect, each brand becomes a separate sales channel for all the others in the group.
When a driver of a high end sedan gets out of the car wearing an expensive watch and a bespoke suit, now that is co-branding. Each of the three brands have agreed to promote each other in RL (Real Life), on television, in print, online, in social media and on the mobile web.
by ProfBruce May 14, 2011
Get the co-brandingmug. There is truth and smart truth. In a media-saturated world where each word is parsed by many looking for scandal, it is more important than ever to tell the smart truth. Lawyers, especially criminal law lawyers, understand the difference.
“Coca-cola proudly announced some years ago that it was introducing vending machines that would raise the price of their sodas when the weather got hot. The announcement was widely panned in the media—just when a consumer needed a break most, the company would be raising its price. The smarter play and the smart truth would have been an announcement that the company was introducing vending machines that lowered the price of their drinks when the weather got cold. It is the same thing yet it isn’t—the smart truth would have had radically different (and much more positive) PR repercussions. The end result—the vending machines never left Coke labs…”
by ProfBruce October 31, 2009
Get the Smart Truthmug. This is an acronym for 'Do It Right The First Time'. It is a new movement focused on getting people to increase their productivity by doing tasks right the first time. If we could get the proportion of tasks performed right the first time someone turns their attention to it, we would see a significant improvement in national productivity.
When your Bookkeeper forgets to make a bank deposit on the first of the month and one of your mortgages goes NSF, you send him or her a note. All it has to say is 'DIRT-FT'.
by ProfBruce October 3, 2009
Get the DIRT-FTmug.