Starting a business often comes with a critical decision: should you bootstrap or take on debt? For Brian and Mary Jo Sullivan, their financial mindset played a pivotal role in shaping their entrepreneurial journey. Influenced by financial expert Dave Ramsey, they embraced a debt-free approach that laid the groundwork for their engineering firm’s success.

Bootstrapping vs Debt 

“The definition of success isn’t limited to the size of your business. In fact, it can be heavily dependent on your financial mindset. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Dave Ramsey and his philosophies were key to getting me and then our family to a point of financial stability and relative strength. His teachings provided enough of a foundation that we were able to take the leap of faith to start our engineering firm without knowing when, or even if, revenue would come in the door. Dave also wrote a book called Entreleadership about how he runs his business, which I devoured.

So, it made sense that when we started the business, we used the same “debt-free” mindset. For the first few weeks, I used a table at the local public library to do much of the initial work of launching the business from our family’s Macbook. This fits well in the budget but obviously wasn’t a great long-term strategy, particularly on the rare occasion that I received a phone call. I would have to quickly scramble to gather all of my items and get outside to answer the call. I looked like a whirling dervish running through the library.

Sitting in the library, I didn’t let the meager surroundings dampen my optimism. I worked on some of our earliest marketing efforts and the templates that we needed to run the business. I also started working on a detailed business plan, including what it would look like each year for the next five years, then a 10-, 20-, 30-, and 40-year revenue picture. Yes, I was bold enough to set a 40-year employee count and revenue goal while sitting in a free public space.”

Brian and Mary Jo’s experience illustrates how a debt-free mindset can empower entrepreneurs to make bold decisions and craft their own paths to success. By embracing bootstrapping and focusing on financial stability, they laid the foundation for their engineering firm while nurturing their aspirations.

If you’re interested in more insights and stories about balancing faith, family, and business, order “Entrepreneurial Trinity“.