About Bootstrapping Ecommerce

Starting an ecommerce business on the side can be full of uncertainty, especially on a tight budget and with little available time. The truth is, having a big budget doesn’t guarantee success. Starting lean is many times not just the only option for new entrepreneurs, but it can also be the best option. A small budget forces you to be creative out of necessity. Tight budgets also force you to think more critically about each decision and its impact on the business.

Bootstrapping Ecommerce is all about highlighting the different ways you can get started in ecommerce with the smallest of budgets while also learning how to be creative with the little time and money you do have, and how to think more critically about each decision you make.

Welcome to Bootstrapping Ecommerce. We’re excited to be part of your ecommerce journey.

About the Company

Bootstrapping Ecommerce is a subsidiary of A Better Lemonade Stand Inc., an online ecommerce incubator that helps entrepreneurs in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey get honest, comprehensive, and reliable advice to help them build, launch, and grow better ecommerce businesses.

Founded in September of 2012, A Better Lemonade Stand has grown over time from what started as a personal blog read by hundreds of visitors each year to what it is now: A complete online hub of entrepreneurial insight and information read by millions of visitors each year. The initial small collection of blog posts published many years ago have now evolved into a well-respected website full of practical and actionable industry advice and thought leadership including resources such as the blog, case studies, ecommerce tools, free guides, premium digital products, video training, and much more.

As A Better Lemonade Stand grew, so did the different demands from our audience. Entrepreneurs at every stage can learn from and build better businesses through A Better Lemonade Stand’s varied content, however, we noticed the niche of entrepreneurs at the very top of the funnel expanding year over year which led us to channel more of our resources into building up Bootstrapping Ecommerce as an additional hub for these types of entrepreneurs who were just getting started in ecommerce and were looking for information tailored specifically to their circumstances.

And thus, Bootstrapping Ecommerce as we know it was brought into existence as of January 2017 to focus exclusively on the top-of-funnel entrepreneurs who want the very basics and the very best industry knowledge for building online businesses on a budget.

The way we see it, Bootstrapping Ecommerce is not about building the next Fortune 500 company. While there’s nothing wrong with that, our purpose here instead is to inspire, motivate, and inform the independent and self-funded businesses. Whether it’s a digital mom-and-pop shop or a student with a dream or maybe even a retiree with some time on their hands or a teacher looking to start a side hustle, we firmly believe that building online businesses is not only essential in this day and age, but it’s also accessible.

You don’t have to be the next “big” company, you don’t have to quit your day job, and heck— you don’t even have to hire any employees! You’re free to build and run an independent, self-funded, small, and bootstrapped online business the way you want to and if you stick around here, we’ll show you how.

Giving Back

A 2015 study conducted by researchers at the University of California discovered that 72% of entrepreneurs self-reported facing at least one form of mental health condition. These conditions ranged from depression to bipolar disorder to ADHD and addictive disorders, and the study described these findings as being significantly higher in entrepreneurs rather than non-entrepreneurs.

According to this study, entrepreneurs are:

• Twice as likely to experience depression
• Six times more likely to experience ADHD
• Ten times more likely to experience bipolar disorder
• Three times more likely to experience substance abuse

Due to these findings and our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs throughout the entirety of their entrepreneurial journey, we’ve committed to donating a portion of our profits each year to CAMH, Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) maintains a high standard of support for persons experiencing mental health conditions. In addition to providing care for patients, they also conduct research for future development, education for organizations and communities, all while leading social change for mental health awareness.

They’re a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) Collaborating Centre with a dedicated staff of more than 3,000 physicians, clinicians, researchers, educators, and support staff and they offer outstanding clinical care to more than 34,000 patients each year.

Our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey doesn’t stop here on our website—that’s why, through our parent company – A Better Lemonade Stand Inc, we’re proud to support CAMH and everything that they do for all individuals experiencing mental health conditions, including entrepreneurs.