7 Ways To Bootstrap Your Passion

So you have a grip on your passion and know what makes you happy. Now you’ve decided to put more happiness in your life and that may mean giving up some sleep, pursuing your dream on the weekends, or jumping from your day job altogether. When you’re starting a new project or even business, money is going to be tight at first. It’s a big investment to pursue your dreams, but the return on investment comes in the form of more happiness and that adds more to your life experience than any salary can. That being said, here are a few things you can do that might make the trip more financially manageable:

There’s no shame in stocking up on ramen noodles. For less than $2 you can get 5 packs of noodles! What a steal! There’s a lot more to ramen noodles than simply popping them in the microwave and mixing in the high sodium flavor packets though. Get creative with your ramen, ditch the flavor packet, and make your own flavoring! Mix it with some chicken broth, chicken chunks, and some veggies for a chicken noodle soup. Use beef broth, broccoli, and some Sriracha for a spicy beef and broccoli dish. Sautee some veggies, shrimp, ginger, garlic chili sauce, peanut butter and milk to make a creamy Thai peanut sauce. The options are endless. It just takes a little bit of creativity. The idea is not to eat crappier food, but instead to find ways to make good food cheaper. When all else fails, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich is always a penny saver.

When I moved to New York City, I went to get a haircut and discovered the cheapest haircut I could find would probably be about $12…and then I have to tip the barber. Every time I wanted to get my hair cut, I had to dish out about $15. My hair never gets very long, so I was paying $15 for someone to snip and buzz for about 10 minutes. Why couldn’t I do that? I invested $30 in a clipper and made my money back in two haircuts. It was definitely scary the first time I went to buzz my head, but I conquered the fear and it ended up okay. I have to be honest though, I did have one mishap…

After about 8 months of haircuts, the cheap clipper I bought had plastic head pieces that began to wear down. I didn’t realize it. After one specific clipping session, my head looked like it had been attacked by a rabid chipmunk (a rabid chipmunk that eats hair). I raised the white flag on that instance and went to the barber. It was so bad, I wore a hat and when I sat in the barber’s chair, I slowly took my hat off and asked, “Can you fix this?”

            It was New York, so the barber barely flinched and got to work. The lesson, though, is that over time you’ll get better. You’ll learn what to do and what not to do. You’ll eventually remove the need to outsource your hair care needs. After about a year of cutting my own hair, it only cost me about $45 total. Not only that, I saved about $300 in haircuts! If you want to get technical, I’ll deduct the $45 cost and report my net profit of $255. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but not only can it make a difference, it’s money that you’re not throwing away for something you can do yourself. I understand this may be more difficult for people with longer hair or more hair care needs, but you have some options too: Trust a friend or roommate to give it a try, do the trimming yourself and save the barber for more intense styling, or consider a shorter low maintenance hair style. The worst thing that can happen is you’ll have a crazy hairstyle for a few weeks, a good story to tell about it, and most importantly a few more ducats in your pocket.

During hard times, it’s easy to find things around the house to sell on Ebay and make a little extra cash, but what happens when you can’t find anything else to sell? Consider every proposition an opportunity to increase your revenue. If you see your friends posting on social media that they are selling their phone or trying to get rid of their laptop, take a few seconds to do some ebay research on what the item is worth. Or find friends or family that have always wanted to get rid of some stuff around the house, but don’t know how to use ebay. You can always offer to sell it for them and elect to keep a percentage of the profits. On multiple occasions I have bought a friend’s old phone so they could have some immediate cash on hand, only to turn around and sell it on ebay for twice the price. A win for everyone! That being said, consider anyone’s problem an opportunity to increase your income. If you’re a good problem solver, people will pay to have you solve their problems. You just have to speak up!

When we think about what our main expenses are, one we often forget about is our utility bill. Of course you can keep yourself aware of your utility usage; use less water, turn off all the lights during the day, etc. But why not take it one step further? You can turn it into an adventure, make it fun, and save yourself some money by removing all electronic usage from your life for a day or even just a couple hours. There are a few different ways to approach this. You could decide to live like the olden days for a day, unplug all your electronics, and decide to read by candlelight for the night. Or you can decide for a certain 4-hour period of each day you will unplug everything and only electrify when the 4 hours are up; using only battery power for the period. Consider cutting your cable package down a notch. At first, it may seem like blasphemy, but once it’s gone, you’ll soon learn how easily you can live without it. Who has time to watch TV while also running a business anyway?!

Another expense that hits our wallet often is our social entertainment. Especially in New York City, going out to a pub with friends or to dinner often can put you into debt fast. Consider inviting your friends over to play some board games. If you want to drink alcohol, buy it from the liquor store opposed to out at the bar. Have a group dinner at a friend’s house and only go out for dessert. If you’re really dedicated, you can remove your entertainment expenses altogether and find ways to entertain yourself at home or at free venues, but it’s all about balance and keep in mind we all need a night out with friends from time to time.

A great way to build a little cash cushion is to stash your cash. I personally, rarely have cash on me. I try to use only my debit card and closely monitor my expenses according to the weekly budget I set for myself. That way, whenever cash does arise or I find myself with a 20 dollar bill or change from having to take cash out of the ATM, I stash it in my personal treasure chest. I’m not allowed to touch the chest unless I’m adding to it. After awhile, the cash starts to add up and before you know it, you have a nice chunk of change to invest towards your business. For those of you that only use cash and tend to have a lot on hand, make a stashing goal. Put away $20 per week, $50 per week, $1 a day. Or you can make different rules: Any 5-dollar bill you receive, you have to stash. Any cash you spend on entertainment, you have to match in your stash. Rules like this might help increase your stash while also decreasing the amount you spend going out.

When something around the apartment or house breaks, you have a need for something, or have a problem, think about how you can solve it yourself. Youtube is a great resource for “How to” videos and you can learn how to virtually do anything virtually nowadays (see what I did there?)…and typically in less than 10 minutes. Do it yourself. It’s simply cheaper than the other alternatives.

When it comes to bootstrapping, it becomes as simple as income versus expenses. What are your expenses? Look at what your expenses are and then explore how you can decrease them. Once you decrease your expenses as much as you comfortably can, consider being a little uncomfortable for short amount of time. Put an end date on it and make it an adventure:

Get creative. If you’re going to go through tough times, do it on your own terms. Wouldn’t it be better to force yourself through some tough times when it’s convenient for you opposed to refusing to get uncomfortable, but then being forced into it by your situation? Look for subtle ways to increase your income. Doing just one of these things will create more cash flow for you and your business. Doing all of them in conjunction will increase that cash flow even more, but what’s the point of all of this if you don’t invest that extra capital into the reason you began bootstrapping in the first place: