Bootstrapping

You keep all the equity and all the control, and you grow only as fast as customers will pay for. Most durable small businesses are built this way.

The trade-off is speed and ceiling. In a winner-takes-most market a funded competitor can simply outspend you to the finish line before your revenue compounds.

The financing is customer money, and it is worth naming because it is free. Deposits before work starts, annual plans paid up front instead of monthly, retainers billed on the first: a $2,000 annual plan sold instead of $200 a month puts twelve months of that customer's cash in your account today. No investor, no interest, no covenant.

It is the wrong choice in two situations: a winner-takes-most market where speed decides who that is, and a product that cannot be sold until it is finished. Everywhere else - which is most places - bootstrapping suits businesses that can charge early and grow in steps, and it leaves the owner with all of what they built.