Minimal Resources for Marketing? How to Bootstrap Your Business to Get Customers

A commonly accepted meaning for “bootstrapping your business” involves building a business from scratch without investors or with minimal external capital. But opening your business without external investment only scratches the surface. 

For example, bootstrapping also encompasses all that it takes to get the word out about your business. Marketing without an advertising budget is true bootstrapping. 

Early Marketing Challenges and Opportunities

Today we have the luxury of social media, and it certainly can have a huge impact when marketing a new business venture. However, if you’re in a service industry such as mine, it often won’t reach your target market. And honestly, in 2003 when I started my company, there were no platforms on which to advertise. MySpace was just starting up and it definitely wasn’t used to gain customers. 

When I started my interpreting business, I was approach by a local Lions Club to speak at a meeting. They had a proposal to fund a tty (teletype machine for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate between themselves and hearing people). 

Bootstrapping Through Community Connections

This tty would be placed in the hands of a local family whose deaf child was going to a school for deaf quite a distance away. It would allow the child to communicate with the family during the week. Again, think 2003 — before smart phones and iChat. 

So off I went into a dark, backroom of a local Holiday Inn in our small town and spoke to a group of men over a meatloaf and potatoes dinner. My topics were interpreting, the Deaf community and the ADA (Americans with Disability Act). 

I loved talking about my business and was a very enthusiastic and excited entrepreneur. I would have talked to a Kindergarten class to be honest. I loved (love) talking business, and particularly my industry. 

What I didn’t expect was that the first speaking engagement as the owner of my newly birthed business would lead to exposure you just can’t buy. 

One businessman there told another organization who needed a guest speaker and then the word got out that I was on the speaking circuit. I spoke at social clubs, fire departments, police departments, and churches. 

Eventually I was speaking at schools and medical facilities — my target markets. And all those luncheons and dinners started to pay off. This method of bootstrapping the business was helping it to grow. 

Expanding Your Horizons Beyond the Target Market

To truly bootstrap your business when it comes to marketing, go back to your target market and then expand your horizons. Who are the people on the peripheral of your market? Find them and work your way into the circle. 

Always be willing to talk about your business, especially in the beginning. Publicity begets publicity.

Another opportunity can be writing about your business. There came a time early on when I was approached by another entrepreneur and asked if I’d co-write a column for the local paper called “Ask the Entrepreneur.” 

Each week people would submit questions and we would answer them from our differing viewpoints. You can be assured that the name of my business was in each and every answer! 

The column lent me credibility and was another key piece of promoting my business through bootstrapping. Sure, it took time out of my week, precious time. 

But again, I was bootstrapping with a big fat zero in my marketing budget. (Today, I’d translate this tip to writing on your social media platforms, for blogs, and in articles for your online industry publications.) 

Translating Traditional Marketing Into Modern-Day Tactics

Essentially, be creative. Think about who is your true market then zero in on who is the actual person calling for your service or product? 

For us, a big market we went after was the medical field. We knew there was a huge need for interpreters and that we just needed to get our name into the hands of right person. I came up with an unconventional idea that directly targeted the person in the hospital that would need the interpreters — the receptionists at the front desk of the hospital and in the emergency room. 

That was where someone might present that didn’t speak English or was Deaf and needed an interpreter. 

Every night for a week I sat cross legged on my living room floor putting together manilla envelopes with our brochure, business cards, and a laminated card that read: “If you are in need of an interpreter, please call Empire Interpreting Service 24/7,” and included our phone number. 

I also put double-sided tape on the laminated card, so that the front-line person could peel it off and stick it close to them for reference. 

Then I paid my son to put on his one and only suit and drive in his beater car to every hospital within a two-hour radius. He was told to walk in to the front desk, leave the envelope, and say only “I was asked to specifically leave this with you,” then walk out. 

Soon the phones started ringing. The word was out and was spreading, and so was our customer base. And the marketing budget was still zero. 

Find ways to get your name out there — even unconventional ways. Ways your competition hasn’t thought of or isn’t doing. Bootstrap your business.