debt Archives - Steve Sammartino

Quote for Entrepreneurs

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

“It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?”

Credit Crunch – advice for Startups

Posted on October 19, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

So the credit crunch is here. This is great news for startups. Great news because the pretenders leave the playing field and reduces the number of players in the game. They often provide flimsy excuses to themselves and us saying things like ‘It’s not a good time to spread new ideas…’

So we need to think about this:

How to win?

How do we win when a lot of money is being locked away from SME’s?
How do we win by investing our available funds frugally?
How do we win by extracting the maximum value from suppliers in a contractionary market place?

In short, how do we extract more value as a ‘bootstrapping startup’ while the VC funded few fall over… scamble for more cash – and run around trying to ‘monetize’ quickly. How can we turn the fact we know how to operate on a tight budget into our advantage?

Now is the best time yet for boostrappers. Now is the time when real value investors, real value extractors and real value providers win.

Bootstrappers business trip

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

I recently had to conduct some rentoid business interstate. The content of the trip is irrelevant, what’s relevant is the context. rentoid is a small startup with a long road ahead. Cashflow is important vital, so we conserve it where possible. This is what successful startups do. We know where they are on the revenue curve – and so we are frugal.

Flights: Cheapest tickets available with no frills budget airline.

Time: First flight in morning, fly back after business hours – last flight. This ensures a full day conversations and maximum value within the trip.

Hire Car: Smallest cheapest car available (Hyundai Getz 3 door to be precise). Low on cost, low on fuel. Only needs to fit two people and two laptops.

Lunch: A burger and fries at a local pub. (at least it had Sydney Harbour views!)

Internet access: Hunt down free wifi area and buy a $3 espresso.

Dinner: Airport Pizza & a soft drink.

Ok, it wasn’t the most glamorous business trip, but the objectives were achieved with the minimum cost, and we had fun. We’ll fly business class, or in a private jet when our business can afford it, and hence it’s deserved.

Start ups out there: Know where you are at. Never let ambition or ego get in front of the revenue reality.

Don’t be like Georgie

Posted on May 8, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

English football savant George Best was once asked what happened to all the money he earned as the worlds greatest player. In classic Georgie style he responded:

“I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars, the rest I just squandered.”

If we’re in an early phase start up or we’ve just made bank, the principles don’t change. If you can control your spending, you can control your business and your life. It’s easy to justify expenditure at either end of the business spectrum. A start up can convince themselves they’re investing for growth. Likewise, a booming business with big profits can fly first class and hire private yachts to impress clients themselves.

Quite often over spending is due to a real lack of creativity and an inflated ego.

Startup blog advice is this: Cash flow is vital and by being creative we can ultimately conserve cash flow, yet generate similar results.

Some stuff all web startups should know

Posted on March 27, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

I’ve just read the following book. 50 great e-Businesses and the minds behind them. By Emily Ross and Angus Holland. It includes all our favourites over the past 10 years. Put simply it’s insightful.

I really think you should read it, but if you’re time poor like most entrepreneurs here’s my bullet point summary for you:

More than 80% of these businesses were founded and run by non-technical people (web designers / coders etc)
Only a handful actually went viral and had overnight success
‘Fun parks’ build traffic & members quicker than ‘real commercial sites’ (see next blog entry)
The majority did not have VC funding, fancy offices, or even staff. They bootstrapped.
Most took much longer than 2 years to build
The most unexpected and common thing that drove success was cold calling & collaboration
The entrepreneurs behind them we’re driven by the idea, belief and excitement – not only the potential for big money.