Starting a New Business with Bootstrap Funding

Here's some great news for anyone who wants to start a business: most successful ventures don't require a lot of money to get going. Many entrepreneurs start with small sums — often $5,000 or less —

In other words, you don't need to have friends in the banking or venture capital business to build a successful enterprise from scratch. Consider this statistic: roughly half of the most recent Inc. 500 — the magazine's annual list of fast-growing small businesses — started at home. The average start-up cost for companies in the 500 was a modest $25,000, and many of the entrepreneurs behind these firms spent far less than that amount to start their enormously successful enterprises.

Clearly, there are ways to start a thriving business without spending a lot of cash. Here's a sample that might get you started:

Keep your day job — for now. You might be able to start your business by working on it during weekends and evenings. That way, you can afford to experiment with different versions of your business until you find the one that seems most likely to succeed. Ideally, you can get your business on track and accrue a healthy backlog of orders before you quit your job.