Dr Jeff Cornwall

Once again this semester I had Charles Hagood, co-founder of the Access Group and Healthcare Performance Partners, come into my class to close out our unit on bootstrapping. (Here is an overview of his talk from last semester that offers several great tips on creating a bootstrapping mentality). Charles and his partner are great examples of what bootstrapping can accomplish building a highly successful business.
This semester he added a new point to his talk that is often overlooked by entrepreneurs once they get beyond the start-up phase. They get out of their bootstrapping habits, get a little lazy, and start spending cash on things that are not going to create sales or take care of customers.
Something like this happens with a golf swing. We start scoring well, and soon forget all of the subtle little things that got our swing to that point in the first place. We assume it is now natural and get a little lazy. That is why professional golfers never stop working on their swing. They hit thousands of golf balls every day. They know that without constant attention to the details of their swing it will not hold up. The same is true in how we manage the scarce resources of our businesses.
Being prudent stewards of the cash we have in our business takes the same concentration and attention to details. Once the cash starts coming in, we relax and think we can go on cruise control. But just like with a golf swing, bad habits and laziness can creep in to take you off of peak performance. And then when your business hits a tough patch or a crisis hits, you are not as ready to meet it as you thought you were.
For Charles this was 9-11. They had gotten out of their bootstrapping ways — not completely, but enough so that when the economic aftermath hit their business, they could see all of the ways in which unnecessary costs and lazy habits had evolved int their business. Luckily, they got back to their bootstrapping roots, and eventually came back stronger than ever.
Never lose that bootstrapping edge. Every dollar you can save while still achieving the desired result makes you more competitive, strengthens your business for the future, and builds your wealth.