Momentum Episode 11:
Bootstrapping Your Business with LaShonda Brown

Maintaining momentum, how can small businesses set themselves up for success without breaking the bank or relying on outside investors? Well, it is possible, it just takes some know-how, some savviness, and knowing the right tools to use.

Today we'll be talking to an expert in that area to shed some light on how you can bootstrap your small business to grow and succeed.

Welcome to Momentum, a podcast by Jotform, where we talk about the technology, productivity tips, insights, and best practices that help us move forward in business and in life. My name is Elliott, your host, and today I'm here with Lashonda Brown, YouTuber and tech educator who helps small businesses flourish by giving them the tools and knowledge they need to thrive without having to dip into debt.

Lashonda, welcome to the podcast and we're incredibly happy you could join us today.

Thanks so much for having me, this should be a lot of fun.

Let's get straight to it. I just gave a top-level summary of what you do when helping provide businesses the tips and insights they need to succeed, but why don't you back up and give us some context in your own words about your background, how you got started on this track, and how you ended up where you are today.

One of the most exciting things about my past is I've never had a full-time job working for anyone but myself. I had a lot of freedom when it came to becoming an entrepreneur because I didn't have that much to leave behind. I was only making 500 a month working while I was going to college.

My husband and I decided to start our own business and I said if I can make at least five hundred dollars a month, I'll leave my job. He was like, well, I hope we can do that. So I decided to step away from that.

Our very first business 10 years ago, which is still in existence today, was a video production company and it has been an incredible process to go from being a service provider to becoming an educator.

In between, I started my own marketing company. I was so inspired by my husband I started a business of my own and so I started to teach people how to use video content outside of just TV production.

Over time, I realized that it would be helpful to create some tutorials for my clients and then I noticed people were actually watching them who didn't know me. Little by little, I became a full-time educator using YouTube because of that journey.

Wow, that's an incredible story starting from where you did to where you found yourself ending up. I think it's kind of indicative of our times. There are so many people and businesses who are trying to make it and in this internet age, finding the tools and resources to help you do so now is just a Google away.

What was the inspiration behind your YouTube channel, which is called Bootstrap Biz Advice? It started with this idea of being an educator. When did you know that it would become something that you would start doing full-time and could replace that 500 dollar a week job? When did you know this is what you were going to do, this is what you wanted to do?

My degrees are actually in theater. My background is a theater arts performance and production major. Growing up, I wanted to be on Broadway and ultimately own my own theater.

As time went on, I decided to support my husband and his video production company and stepped away from theater. What I learned is that I have an uncanny ability to speak while I teach tech.

Nine times out of ten when I am actually walking through how to use a resource, I don't have a script and I have no clue what's going to come out of my mouth until I start recording.

That is impressive and awesome. That realization of wow, I can use my theater background in the tech community blew my mind.

Then I started to realize the authority that I had to speak on resources and then I realized, oh my gosh, I am an influencer. I'm influencing the choices that people make.

I decided, you know what, why not become that mentor I always wanted and never had. When we started, we didn't know anything about business. My husband had a film background, I was an actor, and somehow we decided starting a business was a good idea.

I thought, man, if I had had someone who didn't make me sign up for 10,000 free trials and just showed me what worked, think of all the things I could have accomplished. Seriously, if someone had been nice enough to share.

That's really kind of my mindset with education: I want to share so that you spend less time trying to troubleshoot on your own and that you can put that time toward other things that are better worth your time.

People are so appreciative, even though it's sometimes the most new thing I'm teaching, they go, no, you saved me two hours in Google just telling me how to make a reel in Canva or how to make my first form in Jotform or whatever.

I just started to realize that there's so much potential for someone teaching tutorials that doesn't put you to sleep, that understands the entrepreneurship journey and speaks your language. It doesn't overwhelm you.

That's what I get all the time. People say, oh, you have a great voice or oh, you're an awesome teacher or oh, you're not trying to bait and switch me and sell me a product. I truly just want to teach.

It has been incredible to watch what's happened when you just have that servant mindset and you just show up, produce quality content. Somehow it becomes a job and so that's what I do and I love it.

That is an awesome story and your passion shows through. I think you mentioned Jotform briefly there. Obviously, we found you because of your online tech tutorials like here at Jotform and we've collaborated with you on several videos on your channel.

We'll have some videos of yours on our channel that we're going to start publishing soon that will be published by the time this podcast airs. It really spoke to us as marketers about how you can break down technology into easily understandable tidbits.

That's so important for emerging small businesses who don't want to be bogged down by having to deal with all of this. If you're a Fortune 500 company, you have entire departments dedicated to technology. If you're a bootstrap business, you want to focus on your business.

Being able to condense that into easily understandable terms for quick fixes for business people who are trying to elevate their platform is really powerful. That's awesome.

Before we go any further, I feel like we should clarify for our audience people who might not know, what does bootstrap actually mean? The name of your channel is Bootstrap Biz Advice. How do you define bootstrap for those who may be unfamiliar and why should businesses want to be bootstrapped?

There's actually a saying about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Sometimes that term has negative connotations. Some people say it's impossible to do that on your own and so bootstrapping is a negative thing.

But ultimately, when people use that term bootstrap, what they're saying is they're on a limited budget and so they're forced to be in a position where they have to do it on their own until they can afford to pay someone else.

My biggest thing is I want to give advice for people on a budget with a small team or doing it on their own. I'm not trying to teach a large corporation about tech. I'm speaking to that person who just got laid off their job and is starting their own business or someone working a side hustle or someone going to college looking for a way to generate some money to pay off their loans.

I'm really gearing everything that I do toward the mindset that you cannot afford to go into debt with this business advice. I'm not going to tell you to rack up your credit card debt in order to buy this program or this course or this tool.

I know that you are on a budget, you are doing it on your own, you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Ultimately, the goal is if I can equip you with tools that will help you to grow your business in that phase, eventually you're going to outgrow it and then you're going to be able to start to automate and delegate to something else and grow your business.

I want to reduce the stigma of that. There's nothing wrong with you being on a budget and if I can help you to find solutions that fit where you are instead of being ashamed of the stage you're in, that's going to propel you to the next level.

Absolutely, and I think you can speak so authentically to that because you were there, starting your own business from nothing, trying to find a new job out of college.

As you mentioned to begin with, you're basically teaching yourself in these videos what you wish you could go back and teach yourself to start out. Many other people, as evidenced by your growing YouTube page, have found a lot of valuable insight and advice from that.

On the stigma of bootstrapping, you're right, there is a bit of a stigma. It's interesting because we live in a society where you're anticipated, if you're a founder, to bring on investors or go into debt.

But the moment you do that, you have to become accountable to shareholders and stakeholders. Your financial situation gets precarious if you aren't yielding the results that stakeholders want.

You want to grow your business the right way, not just in the way that your majority shareholders and stakeholders want. I think it speaks to businesses of all sizes, not just small businesses.

Jotform is a bootstrap company still with 350 or so employees. Our CEO's mantra is to stay bootstrap. You don't need to always take on outside investments, especially right away and even 10 years into a company.

Because then you can grow the company the way that you want. This really enables companies to do that because you're still just answering to yourself at this point if you're bootstrapped.

I couldn't agree more with that and honestly neither could Jotform as far as where we're coming from.

Let's jump straight to the nitty gritty, your core tenets to success that you've built over the years and taught people.

If you had to distill it, do you have just a few core tenets you preach that are applicable to pretty much any small business owner who's looking to grow without debt?

I think the biggest thing I would say toward being successful as a small business is just be transparent.

The tendency is to always want to spin a situation, but if you can learn to really lean into transparency, to say hey, I'm not the best fit for everyone but for the people that I am, I'm going to kill it for you.

Honestly, a lot of times people say fake it till you make it, but when you're playing around with someone's livelihood or literal life, you want to be honest about what your capabilities are and what they're not.

I always go for transparency and ethics toward your recommendations or the services or the products you provide because when you lead with transparency and deliver value, your customers become ambassadors and advocates for your brand.

You can lean more heavily on organic reach than paid advertising because you've built up a community of people who believe and trust in you.

Whether it's advice I'm giving or businesses I'm running, people feel like they genuinely know me and they're rooting for me to be successful because I help them be successful.

When it's mutually beneficial, your business is going to grow in a reasonable way at a steady pace and you'll be fine. You won't have to lean on just throwing money at the issue.

I've done probably six ventures at this point and they've all been successful because they've been built on that foundation of transparency, trustworthiness, and ethics.

If you can do that, you can apply that to anything you're doing in business and you'll do well.

I think that's so critical to highlight. Your relationship as a business with your clients is like any relationship with a significant other or family. It's built on a foundation of trust.

If that isn't there, the moment that starts to falter, it can be really hard to get that back.

I think it's harder to maintain that when you expand and grow so quickly and you're answering to stakeholders who need to meet certain requirements.

Highlighting that as the number one thing to build your business off, that foundation of trust, is so pivotal.

That really applies to any industry because you don't have to be a technology business to need tech tools. Every business is going to need some kind of online presence.

What sort of industries are you speaking to and do these tenets apply equally to all of them?

I honestly believe especially when you're taking it from the standpoint of marketing outreach or productivity, most of my tutorials fall into that.

If I can save you money, save you time, or make you money, then my content's done its job. That's really what I filter everything through.

Is this tech tool going to help you grow your business or add more time to your day or save you money by allowing you to get rid of other subscriptions?

I'm really looking at how can I help people on a budget. That's the common factor, not so much industry as it is being fiscally responsible with how you run your operation.

That is universally applicable: productivity and marketing. Some small business owners are so focused on their craft they might not realize up front how important marketing is to growing the business.

To have happy customers, you first need to draw the customers. If I'm a small business owner with most resources dedicated to my product or service but I know I need to market myself, how do I do that without breaking the bank?

All marketing strategies fall into two camps: short-term focus platform or long-term focused platform.

Certain social media platforms are better for time-sensitive information like running a sale or promotion. Creating a YouTube video about that is probably not a good fit because YouTube is more long-term and SEO driven.

For a Black Friday sale, it would be better to use Facebook or Instagram because it's time sensitive, versus YouTube which is better for evergreen content to help reach people looking for solutions.

Short-term marketing platforms are for people who have built a relationship with you and want you more involved daily. YouTube audiences may buy what you're selling even if they don't know you.

Having a balance of the two is a good way to market yourself. I don't recommend creating accounts across all platforms because you can't do it all.

If you have a short-term and a long-term focused platform, that should be sufficient to get you started. Pick your battles.

Get yourself out there, especially if you're a small business looking to make an impact.

Let's dive into some of your favorite tools that you like to recommend. Your channel is full of helpful videos that take deep dives into different tools.

I'm biased because there are certain platforms I use all the time. Obviously, Jotform, I've been using that since day one.

We use that in our video production company to have people upload logos and information for their TV commercials. It was amazing for that.

I absolutely love what's happening over at Canva. They are the bootstrapper tool for graphic design for many people who cannot afford a graphic designer.

I have friends at Flowdesk on their new email marketing software. They are killing it by understanding that people don't want to be punished for growing their email list.

As your list grows with Flowdesk, they don't increase the monthly rate much. It's a huge disruption in the email marketing space, encouraging you to email more and grow more without costing more.

Another platform I like is HoneyBook, which becomes an all-in-one solution for sending contracts, invoices, and questionnaires.

For people who don't want ten thousand tools in their business and want to rely on a few to facilitate their needs, HoneyBook provides a CRM system to manage client relationships without being scattered.

Those are three of my favorite right now. They all embrace community, and I love how they're talking to their users and developing features that best serve them.

This is a fantastic list. These tools are really for the little guy, the business owner, not just Fortune 500 companies.

I love your stance on community and the disruptive pricing you mentioned. All the tools you mentioned, including Jotform, have disruptive pricing models compared to larger peers.

They speak to productivity or marketing that small businesses need. This aligns with the mantra you preach.

Let's talk about some of the biggest pitfalls small businesses make that you try to deter.

The first is the 'if you build it, they will come' mindset and not marketing your business.

Many focus on building infrastructure, hiring the right people, or working on the product, but if you don't have a system to communicate to your customers, you won't pivot fast enough to stay in business.

During the pandemic, if you couldn't communicate how your business practices were adapting, people lost out on business.

If you're a restaurant and can't communicate how to order online, do curbside pickup, or when you're open, you have to have these things in place so messages reach your people.

If you didn't have a website, email list, or social media before the pandemic, it was too late to build them when you needed them.

You have to do that from the beginning. This is a recent symptom of our digital age with easy access to information.

If you don't have that presence of mind in a customer's head, you're going to lose out. Once you get it, you need to stay there because there are many solutions and products out there.

The second big pitfall is money management.

Many businesses fail because they're bad at managing money, not because the product sucked or the market didn't support it.

They spent money on things they shouldn't have, didn't save when they should have, or started before they were ready.

People don't realize how long it takes to pay yourself in your business. They think you just start a business or quit your job and become a billionaire, but it doesn't work like that.

Marketing and money management are the two biggest pitfalls, especially money management when you're bootstrapped.

Even big flashy tech companies with outside investors can go out of business because of poor money management. These are core tenets and foundations.

Let's play devil's advocate. Your channel is bootstrap biz advice for people who want to keep it low budget and not take on big investors.

At what point would they want to seek other solutions to elevate their company to the next level? When would you say that is the case?

It comes from the mindset of what you want to accomplish in your business.

Managing large teams and being a multi-million dollar business is not the dream for everybody.

If having an extra couple grand a month is success for you, you have to define what success is for you when bootstrapping.

If you want a large corporation, you'll need infusion from someone else to scale.

Not losing sight of the goal is important. I've watched people scale their business because people told them they should, but the people who said they would buy didn't buy and they tanked.

Understand what you want to accomplish. If you want to scale, at some point you'll need funds through a loan or investment to scale faster.

That's not for everyone. The dream could be providing a job for yourself and being your own boss.

That's not preached enough. Many blogs assume you want to get to a million-dollar global corporation, but that isn't the goal for many.

Let's talk about pros and cons of being a solopreneur or building a team. When do you want to take on extra bandwidth and resources?

Everyone should have a team, but it doesn't have to be the traditional model.

With remote workers, virtual assistants, and outsourcing, you don't have to do every task yourself.

You shouldn't be doing your own taxes or legal work. These are simple things that should be delegated.

When I say solopreneur, I don't mean doing absolutely everything yourself. I leverage vendors and assistance for various tasks.

If you want to expand to managing people receiving full-time income from your organization, that's the turning point.

You have to decide if you want to manage people or have professional help for things not in your wheelhouse.

I'm personally at a phase where I don't want to manage people. I put a ceiling on my growth intentionally to have the lifestyle I want.

I want to work less and not manage people. If I brought more people, I could make more money but have more responsibility.

Gauge what you want: most freedom or most money. More money means more responsibility.

Scaling just because you can doesn't mean it's the solution or lifestyle you want.

Freelancers like accountants and lawyers can be hired on contract or retainer basis, not full-time.

Many tools you recommend break down barriers to needing experts, making it simpler if you want to do things yourself.

Let's talk about how businesses have been impacted by the pandemic.

Many businesses realized the gap in their tech. They thought they could survive without a great website, online payment processing, or engaging social media.

With the pandemic, word of mouth and in-person disappeared. Businesses realized they needed an online presence to stay relevant.

Many were not prepared and scrambled to learn Zoom, update websites, build social media accounts.

Those who had systems in place ramped up and thrived. The pandemic was a magnifying glass on those not equipped to leverage technology.

People saw an opportunity to create solutions like live streaming businesses.

Techies rejoiced as suddenly people needed online forms and other tools they didn't before.

It speaks to the adaptability of the human spirit that many businesses started and flourished by realizing their niche.

Businesses that didn't have infrastructure gave birth to new businesses that do have the tools because they know they have to.

Helpful resources like yourself come in to equip them to succeed. It's not a fluke your channel has grown so much in the last couple years.

People who leaned into the power of a website and integrated tech like online scheduling embraced it and changed their lives.

Watching people embrace tech and say they're not intimidated or overwhelmed anymore and have more time to do what they love is a win.

I gauge my success by people willing to provide testimonials or share content. When people comment or share and tell me how a video helped them, that's my reward.

Knowing there are human beings consuming my content and being helped motivates me to keep creating.

Tech companies like Jotform are one solution, but small businesses need more than one tool. Educators like yourself wrap that up into one package to elevate their technology success.

Thank you for agreeing to appear on this episode. Your knowledge is amazing and I look forward to user feedback.

I encourage anyone who likes my perspective on tech to connect with me on social media and subscribe to my channel.

I send emails once a week updating people about my life and new things happening in the tech world.

You don't have time to stay on top of all the tech updates. It's a full-time job to track new features, problems, and solutions.

If you don't have time to stay on top of tech needed to run a business online and could benefit from someone doing that work for you, check out my website and subscribe to my email list.

I'm working on a coupon book to help you save money, save time, and make money.

By providing education on YouTube, I'm essentially becoming a member of your team, the tech department you can't afford right now to help you navigate your journey.

Thank you again for collaborating. I encourage everyone to check out your YouTube channel Bootstrap Biz Advice and your website lashondabrown.com.