The Bootstrappers Bible book review

Authors: Seth Godin ISBN: B00005R2F8 Publisher: Do You Zoom, Inc.

The Bootstrappers Bible is a 100 odd page ebook, that was available for free and is now available cheaply from Amazon, that provides a pragmatic and realistic overview on the hows and whys of starting up a business with nothing but limited resources and your own intelligence.

This book focuses on the essentials of competing with bigger, better funded players and contains more ideas, practical advice and essential knowledge than most books treble its size. What I liked most about the books no-fluff style is that it doesn’t sugar coat the potential bad moves you could make, it has sections on how bad idea’s can kill you, other people aren’t like you, which products can’t be bootstrapped (consumer products) and a cautionary tale of a shaving product that kills its own market.

Despite its low page count the sheer number of topics that are boiled down to their essentials is impressive, business models (going it alone, living off bigger companies), how a focus on sales should drive a company and even a section on advertising make this a fast paced book that it’s very hard to get bored reading.

If you are thinking about starting a company or business with very little capital or resources available to you, or even if you just want a more pragmatic viewpoint on how a smaller operation should be run this book is essential reading.

Almost as good as an hour long chat with a successful mentor. 8/10