by Anna Brindley
Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines shoestring as: a small sum of money: capital inadequate or barely adequate to the needs of a transaction.
The synonyms – chicken feed [slang], chump change, dime, hay, peanuts, pin money, pittance, mite, song, two cents – made me laugh when I thought about potential titles for this article: Chicken Feed Dreams, Chump Change Dreams, Peanuts and Dreams???
Recently on HARO there was a query for entrepreneurs who started their businesses on a shoestring. Because I had done so much on my own for my business with so little money, I epitomized the shoestring startup concept. Here is an excerpt from my article on that topic for ShoestringVenture.com:
I worked as if I had no capital. Anything I could do on my own, even with a learning curve, drove my strategy. I quickly became, as Entrepreneur magazine called it, the Chief of Everything Officer . I wrote my business plan, designed the pajamas/loungewear, sewed the first prototype (and a few other WIP prototypes), designed the logo (friends gave input and voted), built (with templates) my website, presented and sold the product to a couple of boutiques, wrote my copy and blog entries, sent my PR queries, created my hangtags and labels, wrote my own patent and applied for my trademark—to name a few. Pattern-making, marking, grading, and sample production are all outsourced within the US. I employed a legal services website to help build my LLC. In hindsight I would take less expensive route on that as well.
I’ve learned loads of lessons on this journey. Check out the full article for the rest of the story (still unfolding as I write this)…
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