If you have to bootstrap a company (and I've created 9 companies this way) the thing that is important to understand is that YOU have to be willing do ALL the jobs in the company!

Emphasis on WILLING. You don't actually have to do every job, but you simply must be willing to do every job that needs to be done. Hence creating a business with partners splits the workload.

The benefit of this is that you know EVERY aspect of your company inside out. And you REALLY learn how to create a business from the base up - a very valuable skill to have for when later on you have access to startup capital.

So if you have not gone out and done sales or have a resistance to doing this - maybe it's time to put your boots on and burn some leather!

In a startup - when you talk with clients you LEARN about the VALUE of your product in ways you could not imagine. You often discover hidden value because you often have to think on your feet and SELL the VALUE to someone else.

This hidden value could take your company in a completely different direction or allow you to increase revenue exponentially.

If you had not done the sales yourself you probably would not have discovered this hidden value.

When I bootstrapped a new SEO company about 15 years ago, there were just two of us in the company - me and my tele-sales partner. She made the appointments and I did the face-to-face calls.

I did all the face-to-face sales for the first year giving us solid sales data, a sales track record, and a sales process.

This made it easier to attract a TOP-FLIGHT sales manager on 100% commission. Our finances were still too weak to pay them a fixed salary plus commission, but when they saw the sales systems and data, they agreed to do the job for a month's trial on 60% net commission.

The deal was expensive for us but because we had the data we knew we could make it work. And the most important part was that it meant I could shift my focus to higher-value work - business development.

That sales manager stayed with us and drove our sales 100-fold over the next three years.

It was one of the best early development decisions we made. Our company grew from 2 to 30 team members in that same time period all from cashflow!