Bootstrapping

The term bootstrapping originates from the saying “to pull oneself up by your bootstraps.” The saying refers to a person who is able to recover from a situation where it seemed as though there was no possible solution. Today, the term is used both in business and computer programming. In either context, the term is used to describe a situation where a person is able to overcome a seemingly difficult situation or make a complex situation more simple.

Bootstrapping in the Context of Business

In business, bootstrapping describes an entrepreneur who sets up a business with little or no financial backing. This means that the business owner has no start-up capital and uses the profits derived from the business to finance its growth. A leveraged buyout of a business is also referred to as bootstrapping. This is when an investor uses borrowed money to fund the buyout of a company.

You can learn bootstrapping business techniques from niche blogs like Bootstrapping Ecommerce.

When used in the context of computer software, bootstrapping refers to the use of one programming platform to create a more complex one. In other words, bootstrapping uses one programming language as a base to create a more sophisticated language to perform a specialized task, making it simpler for the programmer to execute certain tasks. One can look at PHP or Java as bootstrapping as they rely on HTML as the base upon which they build added functionality. A website will always use HTML as the protocol by which it operates and communicates. By bootstrapping add-in programs, one can add to the functioning of the website to improve user interaction, graphics or any other function of the website.