Over the past 20 years I have read many business related books and every once and a while I find an excellent read with an insight into the basics of small business entrepreneurial success.

I also often get asked by entrepreneurs and small business owners to recommend some of the best books I have read. In this column, I will present the basics of a real good book to read if you are a small business owner, or plan to start your own small business.

The short (65 pages) e-booklet "The Bootstrapper's Bible", by Seth Godin is a small business manifesto that is designed to give you the confidence and insight you need to pursue the Canadian small business dream--starting your own business with little or no money. It  is available for free download here and is one of the books I often recommend when it comes to gaining an inspiration to start a small business.

If you've read anything at all about starting a business, you've probably been told at least three things:

1. You'll need money to start and run a small business;
2. Starting and running a small business can be really, really, complicated and;
3. Lastly - most small businesses are destined to fail within the first year.

Available to you once again! There's never been a better time to start a business with no money. This manifesto written by Seth Godin will show you how.

"The Bootstrapper's Bible"

About the author:
Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. In Free Prize Inside, his follow up to the best selling marketing book of 2003, Purple Cow, Seth helps you make your product remarkable with soft innovations. You need to make each of your employees idea champions so they can find the Free Prize. Godin is author of multiple books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Seth is a renowned speaker as well. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses. He holds an MBA from Stanford and was called "The Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by BusinessWeek.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the manifesto. Download the free Reader from Adobe.

Well, since you (plan to read) this manifesto, chances are that you qualify! For me, a bootstrapper isnʼt a particular demographic or even a certain financial situation. Instead, itʼs a state of mind. Bootstrappers run billion-dollar companies, nonprofit organizations, and start-ups in their basements. A bootstrapper is determined to build a business that pays for itself every day. In many ways, itʼs easiest to define a bootstrapper by what she isnʼt: a money-raising bureaucrat who specializes in using other peopleʼs money to take big risks in growing a business. Not that thereʼs anything wrong with that…

You can use the information in this manifesto to make any company more focused, more efficient, and more grassroots. Throughout this manifesto, though, Iʼll be primarily addressing the classic bootstrapper: entrepreneurs who are working their butts off to start a great business from scratch with no (or almost no) money.

At last count, there were several million bootstrappers in this country, with another few million wannabes, just waiting for the opportunity. My goal is to give you enough insight and confidence that youʼll get off the bench and make it happen.

The Bootstrapper’s Manifesto

TAPE THIS TO YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR AND READ IT OUT LOUD EVERY NIGHT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED:

• I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money.
• I will succeed because my efforts and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded
  competitors.
• I am fearless. I keep my focus on growing the business—not on politics, career advancement, or other wasteful distractions.
• I will leverage my skills to become the key to every department of my company, yet realize that hiring experts can be the secret to my success. I will be a fervent and intelligent user of technology, to conserve my two most precious assets: time and money.
• My secret weapon is knowing how to cut through bureaucracy. My size makes me faster and more nimble than any company could ever be.
• I am a laser beam. Opportunities will try to cloud my focus, but I will not waver from my stated goal and plan—until I change it. And I know that plans were made to be changed.
• I’m in it for the long haul. Building a business that will last separates me from the opportunist, and is an investment in my brand and my future. Surviving is succeeding, and each day that goes by makes it easier still for me to reach my goals.
• I pledge to know more about my field than anyone else. I will read and learn and teach.
• My greatest asset is the value I can add to my clients through my efforts.
• I realize that treating people well on the way up will make it nicer for me on the way back down. I will be scrupulously honest and overt in my dealings, and won’t use my position as a fearless bootstrapper to gain unfair advantage. My reputation will follow me wherever I go, and I will invest in it daily and protect it fiercely.
• I am the underdog. I realize that others are rooting for me to succeed, and I will gratefully accept their help when offered. I also understand the power of favors, and will offer them and grant them whenever I can.
• I have less to lose than most -- a fact I can turn into a significant competitive advantage.
• I am a salesperson. Sooner or later, my income will depend on sales, and those sales can be made only by me, not by an emissary, not by a rep. I will sell by helping others get what they want, by identifying needs and filling them.
• I am a guerrilla. I will be persistent, consistent, and willing to invest in the marketing of myself and my business.
• I will measure what I do, and won’t lie about it to myself or my spouse. I will set strict financial goals and honestly evaluate my performance. I’ll set limits on time and money and won’t exceed either.
• Most of all, I’ll remember that the journey is the reward. I will learn and grow and enjoy every single day.

TRUE STORY 1:

I AM A LASER BEAM
The big call came just a few months after Michael Joaquin Grey and Matthew Brown had
started up their toy company. Would the two San Francisco bootstrappers like their product
included in the movie marketing blitz for The Lost World? Nope, said Grey and Brown, who
preferred to stick with their vision of gradually building a market for Zoob, their plastic DNA...

To read the full book, we have made it available for free download here.

Review from Amazon.com
[from the longer paperback version:] Starting out in 1986 with practically nothing, book packager and cyberentrepreneur Seth Godin has created a new- and old-media business that now employs 40 and generates around $5 million in annual revenue.

In The Bootstrapper's Bible: How to Start and Build a Business with a Great Idea and (Almost) No Money, Godin shows precisely how his own venture, and a slew of others like Dell Computer, Burton Snowboards, Bose Corporation, Starbucks, and many lesser-known companies, ultimately managed to turn that nothing into something quite substantial.

"Bootstrappers built this country, and they continue to make it great," he writes. "Virtually every business--from IBM to the local dry-cleaner--was bootstrapped, usually by people with far less smarts, less money, fewer connections, and less vision than you have right now." He elaborates on specific practices that he believes are critical to entrepreneurs who may have great ideas and boundless enthusiasm but lack the financial resources to launch their businesses in the traditional way. Writing in a clear and straightforward manner, he lays out Nine Magical Rules (such as "Find people who care about cash less than you do"), Ten Commandments (including "Don't forget where you came from"), and lots of other helpful tips. --Howard Rothman Ingram Seth Godin offers inspiration, ideas, and roadmaps to those starting their own business. To encourage bootstrappers, he shares his own story and covers other bootstrappers (from Dell Computer to Haagen Dazs) who have parlayed a great idea into a sizable fortune, using the smart strategies and cash-stretching tactics revealed in this book.

FIVE STARS A classic., January 30, 2000 Reviewer: Steve Ross from St. Petersburg Florida Again and again, I find myself going back to this book to find things I missed. Goden has produced a resource that's essential for anyone starting or running a small business. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Book Description
A short (65 pages) e-booklet that is designed to give you the confidence and insight you need to pursue the American dream--starting your own business with little or no money.like building toy.

Randy McCallum is an award-winning graphic designer and developer of Web-based CMS (content management systems), web sites, and web portal software applications for clients in Canada, USA and Europe. RandyMac is the core web portal designer and consultant developer of the Trail Chamber's new Web portal. He also writes about technology and feature columns about the Greater Trail/West Kootenays and his bi-weekly technology tips column, editorial cartoons, and tourism oriented columns about the West Kootenays and Greater Trail area featured in the Trail Rossland News and on his own web sites and web portals.

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