I was at a  networking event a few months back and while having dinner, I happened to be seated next to a bright young man who was completing his MBA.  We talked about many things, one of them being entrepreneurship.  He was interested in this topic since he planned one day to launch his own business.  Outside of school, he was very passionate about tennis.  In fact, he had been giving private lessons for several years and he was now interested in turning his hobby into a full fledged business.  So what was holding him back?  In order to launch his business, he needed several hundred thousand dollars in start-up cash.  His idea was to create a full fledged tennis school and training center.  The high cost of his venture prevented him from moving forward.

There is nothing wrong with thinking big.  However, that being said, we also have to be realistic and willing to start small.  The ‘big picture’, if too rigid, can get in the way of progress.  With the gentleman and his tennis school, there was nothing preventing him from starting his business.  In fact, one could argue that he was already ‘in business’ since he was generating revenues as a private instructor.  Instead of waiting around for a big infusion of cash, he could still move forward by growing incrementally.  He could think of ways to increase existing sales.  Eventually, he could hire another instructor or possibly outsource the teaching altogether.  With more time on his hands, he could then work on introducing new services, creating partnerships, etc.,  things that will take his small business to the next level.

Another problem with having an ‘all or nothing’ attitude is that it prevents us from developing our creativity.   A small business owner constantly needs to be creative in order to solve day to day problems.  They should never let obstacles get in the way of progress.  If they can’t get a loan for their business, they can  try bootstrap financing (raising the funds from friends, family, co-workers, former clients, etc.).  I once met an extremely successful real estate investor who raised his initial investment capital by writing personal letters to every doctor and lawyer he could find.  He figured people in these professions made a lot of money and some might be interested in being passive real estate investors.  What if you don’t have money to spend on marketing?  You can use low cost marketing techniques like direct mail, pay per click, or referral marketing.  What if you don’t have money to pay for a professional website?  Have you considered bartering with a small web design company who has an equal need for your services?   The point is:  there is a solution to every problem if we’re creative enough.

One final problem I see with the ‘all or nothing’ attitude is that we shouldn’t feel entitled to receiving large sums of money for a ‘great idea’.  Investors are not there to make charitable donations.  Why should I give someone $500k of my hard earned money just because he or she has a great idea?  Investors spend money to make money.  They want to see a great product, new markets, strong initial sales, an experienced management team or board of advisors, exclusive partnerships, etc., thing that will support the future growth of the start-up.  There is no problem with dreaming big.  But as the saying goes:  “A journey of a thousands miles begins with a single step.”

• Open Office:  A great software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases.  It is basically an alternative to Microsoft Office, but without the $500 price tag.  As the name suggests, it is open source, meaning it is free to download and use for any purpose.  It is also compatible with Microsoft Office so you can open all your old Word and Excel files.
• Google Apps:  Outsource your email management to Google.  The great thing about Google Apps is that you can apply it directly to your existing domain and it works in the backend without anyone knowing.  So you can create an email account related to your website (e.g. john@ilovedogs.com) and use Google to manage your inbox. The free version allows up to 50 users and 25 gigabytes of storage per user.   You can also use a third party client like Outlook or Thunderbird if you don’t want to use Google’s web interface.  Other Google Apps functions besides email include  Google Calendar, Google Sites (e.g. can use to create an internal website for  employees), Google Docs (think free online version of Microsoft Office), and Google Video.
• Sugar CRM:  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows you to capture all your customers’ information and store it centrally in one location.  You can also record any interactions and update customer files.  A commercial CRM system like Salesforce will cost you between $100 and $780 per user every year (standard or professional version).  Enter Sugar CRM, the open source (i.e. free) alternative.   Though there are different editions, the free or Community edition has about 85% of the functionality of the Professional and Enterprise editions.  You can integrate it directly into your website so it can be accessed anywhere where there is an Internet connection.
• Intelligent Office:  Dont’ want to commit to a 5 year lease for a commercial office?  How about a virtual office?  With Intelligent Office, you can rent commercial office space and conference rooms by the hour.  The company also provides  remote and on-site receptionist services and admin support services.
• Amazon S3:  I like the idea of an online backup since it is more secure than leaving an external hard drive lying around the house.  There are tons of companies out there that provide online backup of your data, but they usually want a monthly subscription.  There free versions offer a ridiculously small amount of storage space.  With Amazon S3, you only pay for what you use and for $0.15 per gigabyte, you don’t pay much.  Encryption is also top of the line from what I read.
• PowerFolder:  This one took me a while to find, but it was well worth the effort.  The problem I have with Windows FolderShare (which is free) is that every person you share a file with has to register first for the service.  This is very annoying if you don’t already have an id (e.g. hotmail address) and all you want to do is use the folder sharing function.  PowerFolder is the open source alternative.  There is no need to sign up.  Just download the program, install, and you’re ready to go.  You can can send out invitations by email or even save the invitation file on a USB and give access to computers of your choice.
• XMind:  I’m a big fan of mindmapping.   I use it for everything from brainstorming to summarizing key areas of my startup.  The problem is that mindmapping software can be very pricy (e.g. $350 for MindManager).  I recently discovered XMind and after using it for about 5 minutes, I was completely sold.  I find it a lot more user friendly than FreeMind, the other free alternative.  There is a professional version available for a low cost of $49 per year (subscription based).