Everyone talks about how awesome bootstrapping can be. You gain focus and purpose, control more aspects of the money, and most importantly, your company is more sustainable for the long haul. Very few talk about the stresses, nor how to go about bootstrapping. Seth Godin’s 1998 Bootstrapper’s Bible put it eloquently that bootstrapping is a mindset. This fact is as true today in 2015 as it was the year I graduated high school (in ’98), and I don’t see this changing any time soon.

The thing about bootstrapping is that it is a mindset that is different from that of the rush of Silicon Valley’s startup scene. It’s slow, methodical, purposeful, and super focused. It’s also agile — each interaction shows you the broken bits of your plan, and you have to work to restructure them lest you lose your source of income.

Bootstrapping makes you and your business smarter.

With every decision you make, you are weighing the pros and cons. Everything gets weighed against the time and money it takes to complete the task or obtain the resource.

Should you buy that e-conference you found somewhat useful?

Should you invest in that software?

Should you spend time fixing that system?

Bootstrapping is not kind to those of us without a steadfast vision in what we want to accomplish, nor those that are inflexible enough to work with the clients needs and desires you didn’t foresee, but may turn out to be essential. The easiest type of business to start while bootstrapping is a consulting firm. There are many people who are business consultants that regurgitate what others are saying and quickly claim the check before the client realises they have been duped. There are others, too, like freelancers that start off with nothing but guts, computer, and hustle to find clients. Regardless, the scrabble to be seen and make money is on.

Borrow this idea from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs to make a money envelop system for your budget to really bring the idea home.

Bootstrapping in the science industry is difficult, but not impossible. I’m not talking about the computer science definition of bootstrapping of creating a programme that starts and initiates the software, I’m talking about bootstrapping a science company that is aiming high. I’m talking about independent scientists that have a lab out in the garage or tucked away in a closet. Doing so requires a few things to be successful, and those are listed below.

Choose your suppliers wisely. As in any business, that goes beyond yourself, you have suppliers. In a broad context these are the people and companies you go to buy products, services, resources, and anything else you cannot produce yourself. Each of these people will take your hard-earned money, so you need to be extra careful that you are getting things that will help your business grow, not tumble.

Keep track of everything. I don’t just mean finances — that’s a bit of a tautology. You are a scientist, and your company should be treated in the same way you treat your lab projects. That means keep track of the details and the outcomes in and out of the lab. In the lab that means keeping track of supplies, out of the lab that means keeping track of business details. Try a marketing campaign? Write down what you did and how it fared in comparison to your goals. Don’t compare your work with anyone else’s, because you are not everyone else. You are not trying to fit into a crowd, but to separate your work from the norm.

Your goals are everything. There is an outstanding number of people out there that are doing the same things as everyone else. They are trying to shout louder, use colour theory, trickery, and just plain exhausting in your face advertising to be seen. This is not what you need to focus on. You need to focus on your bigger picture and the goals surrounding that. If you want to write a book, don’t get sidetracked by the ins and outs of webpage design for the book. Write the book, then as it’s being edited by a friend, go work on that website and marketing.

Put on blinders. You should have guessed this one by now. Stop the shiny object complex in its track. If you think of an idea for a project, write it down in a notebook or something like Asana to come back to at a later date. Do not sign up for irrelevant emails, e-courses, course, webinars, etc. Just say no to all of them while you work to make your vision come true. All those emails will distract you, the webinars will waste your time, and they will always beg for money at the end. Besides, a good deal of them now a days don’t say much of anything — a 10 minute intro, 15 minutes on material if you’re lucky (most of the time it seems superficial, though), and another 10 minutes on Q&A, then finally 15 minutes of a pitch to learn more. It’s pretty annoying when you can spend less time reading their blogs on the same thing. You have better things to spend your time on.

All this doesn’t mean you can’t explore, break things, and then fix them again. It just means do so with purpose. And most of all, never waste your time or money. Ever. If you buy a resource or class, use it. If you go to a free webinar, take notes on the material and whether or not it was worth your time. Use the notes to your benefit and expand your awareness and toolbox.

In short: Live purposefully.