In a bruised and battered global economy, banks funds decimated by their lacklustre decisions during the last decade, getting your hands on the capital required for initial startup or expansion can prove relentlessly difficult.

Fortunately, there is a method that can render the banking sector’s frugalness irrelevant: bootstrapping.  Using your own personal finances or revenue streams, it’s possible to fund a business startup or expansion without calling upon banks or venture capitalists. Here are a few tips to help you and your business perfect the fine art of bootstrapping...

Treat cash flow as king

Keeping on top of cash-flow is in an imperative in any business. Acting as bootstrapped business even more so, as you’ll essentially be relying on revenue to pay bills, as well as fuel potential expansion. This is no easy task, involving not only keeping track of the finances in the here and now but also planning for the future, using cash-flow forecasting in order to avert financial disaster later down the road. Fortunately, the advent of online accountancy has made the process easier, providing ease of access to balance sheets and the like whilst saving money on extortionate high-street accountant fees.

Get bank for your buck

Every penny counts as a bootstrapped business, so it pays to be a little frugal with what capital you have. Cloud software and the myriad of apps on offer by iTunes and its rivals provide great value for money if you’re tight on funds, in many cases offering free equivalents to potentially expensive staples of a small businesses armoury. Google Drive offers online environment where users can take care of their word processing, spreadsheet and presentation needs for free, whilst the Skype app offers free device-to-device calling and low-cost device-to-number calling anywhere in the world, as well as multi-person video chats and screen sharing should you so need them. Both are free!

Be internet savvy with your marketing

The internet has become omnipresent in our lives, changing the way we interact, shop and do business. It therefore pays to have an online presence as a small business, via an online shopfront, Facebook, Twitter or your own blog. Used effectively in combination, the three can prove a useful asset in promoting your business, eliciting trade and establishing and developing a brand identity. With Wordpress offering a free way to establish an online shopfront and the likes of Facebook, Twitter and blogging all free, it’s not only cost-effective to establish an online presence but potentially financially rewarding, too.

It all depends on the nature of your business whether bootstrapping is a viable option, but increasingly with the advent of cloud software, the burgeoning appmosphere and birth of social media, it’s now infinitely more manageable. Who needs bankers, eh.