Research study about bootstrapping

Discussions
#1

Hi everyone,

I am just finishing up my studies and am eager to get started on my first project. Before that, however, I have to write my Master thesis for my business degree. So I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and write about bootstrapped digital businesses. In particular I want to contrast that approach with the funded and VC backed route, look at what makes bootstrapped businesses successful, and look into what approach is better suited for young aspiring entrepreneurs. For that purpose I have a short survey and need people with self-funded digital businesses, bootstrappers like you, to answer it.

It’s completely anonymous and shouldn’t take more than 5 – 10 minutes.
So I would be incredibly grateful if you could take the time. Of course I will share all the data and my analysis with you. It should make for an interesting read.

Here’s the link
https://hec.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4OuvPNVAGgaQGBn

And if you want to share it with other bootstrappers I would be incredibly grateful. A quick tweet (short link: bit.ly/1q4Pjay) or email would be amazing.

Feedback is also very welcome.

Thank you!

#2

I don’t understand this question:

“If you have left full-time
employment / consulting in favour of  your business, how many hours were
you able to work on your business(es) before you did this?”

Is that per week?

#3

Sorry. Yes, that is per week. That question used to be closer to the other one about working hours per week.

Thank you for pointing that out.

#4

Some choices are not mutually exclusive, despite they are formulated like that.

For instance, full-time employment is not necessary exclusive with consulting. For instance, I’m a consultant; I have my own company and all that jazz, but I’m full-time with a single client for almost 3 years already (40hrs/wk+). It is just the nature of the projects I’m working on that they take a long-long time (telecom, energy, banking) and rolled out in a few phases, often taking many years to complete.

I.e. full-time is not the same as FTE (full-time employee).

#5

Thanks for getting in touch.

For the purpose of the study being a full-time employee at a company other than your own and working full-time as a consultant are equivalent as you’re working full-time on something other than a product based business. That’s why the two are sometimes conflated like that.

I hope this clears things up.