When you turn 50 in Australia, the government sends you a test kit to collect a stool sample to see if you have health issues that you may not be aware of yet. If the results come back clean, reality sets in, and with the average life expectance in Australia well into your 80s, how can you afford to live until then?
This puts you back in the same situation you were in your early 20s, but you have a competitive advantage over Millennials called "life experience", so you have more in common with your grandkids than you may think.
Think about the advice you would give to your younger self when you were trying to work out what to do for the rest of your life. There has never been a better time to listen to your own advice, so why don't you do that?
We'll help you bridge the gap!
Let's start with the poo emoji in our logo, which is how millennials communicate. It's not a marketing ploy to get attention from kids today. Show that image to your doctor and they will say "it looks like you have a healthy diet" as a doctor would recognize it as a 4 on the Bristol Stool chart. These are the type of things kids today miss out on. To them, it's all just a load of crap.
Just like what you put into your body, what you put into your business is reflected by what comes out of it.
This program is like putting fibre into your diet, to get over your income constipation. Even if you don't want to start a business, you can still earn a side income to spend on whatever the hell you like. Your grandkid's birthdays, a cruise, or if you do what you love and keep getting paid to do it whenever and where ever you want, doesn't that sound like what you do in retirement?
No matter where you are in your bootstrap start-up journey, we have a range of Startup High Intensity Training (S.H.I.T) courses to help you.
Choose the S.H.I.T. you think you need from the list below, but we see all 7 courses as critical for the bootstrap startup process if you are starting from scratch.
Here are instructions how you can get access to the free stuff now and other courses down the track:
If you are at the start of creating a new income stream, even if you have done it before, we still suggest completing the courses in this order as a score check as you may be missing something from your previous experience.
There are very few professional development courses specifically designed from the ground up for micro-business owners as many are converted from corporate training and formal qualification. We have been doing this for 30 years.
Education is of no value without implementation, and we provide value to you by helping you learn through doing in the real world. This can be very confronting to some, so our courses are not for everyone.
Everyone goes through the process below to build knowledge, but we aim to flatten the learning curve so you keep your confidence to continue doing what you love.
Startup process course list:
1. BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, GREAT ALREADY (BIGA)
2. HELP OVERCOME TROUBLE (HOT)
3. UNDERSTANDING PURCHASERS (UP)
4. MAKE OPPORTUNITIES VIABLE ENTERPRISES (MOVE)
5. DEPRESSED, INSECURE, AND PRECIOUS (DIP)
6. SOCIAL TROLLS, INSURGENTS, AND FAKE FRIENDS (STIFF)
7. SYSTEMATIC TESTING OF PROBLEMS (STOP)
Please email help@bootstrapstartup.com.au if you want more information.
Or, go to https://bootstrapstartup.com.au/ and click "book now" to book a consultation to discuss if this program is the right fit for you.
Oh, and about that stool sample chart... there are 7 steps in our startup process. But to make it more relevent to over 50s, we've mapped each step to the stool chart as a measure of how healthy your business is looking, or not.
Then you can change your diet to suit your own individual needs. Sound good to you?
See you soon,
Brett
In researching what to put into the Bootstrap Startup High Intensity Training (B.S.H.I.T.), we went out and asked Small business experts why they do what they do, and how they have practised what they preach to overcome the struggles they have had at startup to grow their business.
As it includes their personal story, think of it as an "only fans" membership site for small businesses. So you will have to sign-up and enrol yourself in this course to do see the videos for free. They have donated their time and their IP to the program, so we think your details are a small price to pay.
Here are instructions on how you can get access to the free stuff now and other courses down the track:
Particularly if you want to sign up for the other courses. It's kind of like our try before you buy. But if you don't want to do our courses, we will still connect you with the people in the videos we introduced you to.
So if you are willing to sign up, we'll invite you to have a coffee (or other drink) with us and we can talk about how it is OK to B.S.H.I.T. in business as customers are willing to pay you for that too.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
Our BIGA-SHIT course is about skills recognition, and work out if you have the skills you need to do what you love, and earn an income out of it in a competitive marketplace.
If you don't have it now, that's ok. our HOT-SHIT course will help you fill in the gaps.
This course contains:
- Full Webinar recording explaining each topic in this course (1hr 20 mins)
- 4 topic sections with different skills recognition tools to use
- Other short videos on each topic to explain how and why we use the tool for formal skills recognition options
- Learning content with Quizzes to reinforce learning as you go along
- Chat Forum to ask questions and introduce yourself (and your business) as a networking opportunity
- Opportunities to get feedback on ideas or book coaching sessions if you want extra help (optional)
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
- Mentor: Brett Trainer
No Small Business can go it alone, even if you are a Solopreneur. What would your rather double, $10 or $50? Following on from our BIGA-SHIT course, this HOT-SHIT course teaches you how to increase your earning capacity by doing what you are great at.
We’ll show you how to overcome your weaknesses through collaborations with others in your business network. Find people who do for love the things you hate.
To start this course, you must upload your CSfW and Team Role self-assessment from our BIGA course to get access to this course content. If you have not previously completed the BIGA course, you can complete the self-assessments now and upload them, but there are no shortcuts. Finding people with complimenting skills in this HOT course relies on the information you give us.
Garbage in/garbage out as they say...
This course contains
- Full Webinar recording explaining each topic in this course (1hr 20 mins)
- 5 topic sections with different skills recognition tools to use
- Other short videos and expert advice in each topic explaining how and why we use the tools
- Learning content with Quizzes to reinforce learning as you go along
- Chat Forum to ask questions and introduce yourself (and your business) as a networking opportunity
- Opportunities to get feedback on ideas or book coaching sessions if you want extra help (optional)
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
If you don’t understand buyer behaviour, you’ll be up the proverbial creek, without a paddle. Our UP-SHIT course teaches you the different types of empathy to use at each of the 5 steps in buyer behaviour.
When you understand where potential customers are in the decision-making process, you can meet purchaser needs all the way from tyre kickers to raving fans and repeat business.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
If you don’t believe people will pay you to do what you love, then our MOVE-SHIT workshop is for you. A dream is just a plan without a timeframe, so in this workshop, you’ll get the steps to go through to make your dreams come true.
All you need is a passion for something, and this is the stage before startup known as business inception. The Bootstrap Startup program is part of the Inception Network, so think of this as the cross-over course unplugging you from the matrix.
We can only show you the door. You still have to walk through it.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
In our DIP-SHIT course, you learn how to use emotional intelligence in business to overcome the 3 main triggers why all businesses fail. Poor strategy, poor cashflow, and poor products, and how this relates to 3 of the 4 P’s of the marketing mix.
Use critical thinking tools and techniques to avoid these pitfalls, or at least the DIPs, and make "smarter" business decisions.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
The last P in the marketing mix, promotion, can be hard for people to do in Bootstrap startups. Particularly on social media, where you may get criticism that dents your confidence. That’s where our STIFF-SHIT course comes in. It’s not personal, you just need to be a bit thick-skinned in business.
If you have not already completed a personal SWOT analysis, as is the outcome of our other workshops, you may not be ready for this STIFF course and struggle to complete it if you sign up now. We don't recommend promoting products on social media if you are vulnerable to attacks as this is bad for business, let alone your own mental health.
A reminder that this course is not done in simulation, you'll be dealing with real people on social media to complete this course. Have you thought about getting others in your network to do this for you? You don't have to do everything, even if you are a solopreneur.
You can start now if you want to see what you want to work on, that's fine too. There is no time limit on the course, but if you don't complete this course in under 3 months it is likely you never will.
This course gives you the tools and techniques to apply what you learned in our BIGA-SHIT and HOT-SHIT courses, turning attacks on social media into an opportunity to show off your expertise.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor
70% of businesses survive the first year. But by the end 2nd year, when businesses are looking to scale up, only 35% of businesses survive that.
This SToP-SHIT workshop applies Jobs to be done and disruptive innovation theories, as a practical analysis of your business model canvas to focus your activities only on what works.
Our HOT-SHIT workshop can teach you what to do about the things that don’t work for you after this workshop as a next step in the continuous improvement process.
We don't want to treat you like a number, you're a human being. But if you want to be a human doing, decide which percentage above do you want to be in.
This course helps you be one of the 35%, by doing less work, not more.
- Mentor: Brett O'Connor