I can’t tell you how many people come to me thinking they need investors in order to start a business. They’re ready to give away ownership (and potentially control of their business) before they’ve even begun!

It’s not surprising, really. For every story about a business that starts with two people in a garage with only their savings, there are eight or ten press releases about companies securing millions of dollars in their latest round of funding. We hear a lot more about big money than we do about bootstrappers.

Bootstrapping has its advantages.

There are, however, virtues in starting out with limited resources. If you choose to bootstrap, both you and your company will have advantages that you can’t get with a huge cash infusion — balancing out some of the disadvantages of not having the money you’d get from investors.

Ultimately, the appeal of outside funding comes from the desire to get the resources you need to grow your business.

But countless businesses are able to grow without investors by making smart decisions about how they spend their time, energy and money in the first place, which allows them to use their limited resources to succeed despite a lack of investor funding.

Bootstrapping lets you keep control of your vision.

Another reason many people take the bootstrapping path is to retain control over their business and their vision. That flexibility is a major benefit that goes away once you take on investors.

Listen, investors fund businesses to make money. Their goals trump the goals you might have for your business, and their desire to exit and cash out as soon it’s feasible often translates into pressure to grow and scale faster than you might want to — or might be best for your company in the long run.

For some people that’s an acceptable trade-off, especially if they’re starting their business with the express goal of selling it. But if you have a vision and a dream for your business that reaches beyond that, bootstrapping is an option that allows you to continue calling the shots and deciding how your business evolves.

This matters more than most founders realize. I’ve watched investors push countless founders to grow faster than their business could handle — chasing a quick, profitable exit for themselves. They cash out at the top. Then the business, force-fed growth it was never ready for, crashes.

Bootstrapping allows you to set the pace that’s right for your business and your market. You grow as fast as your business can actually handle — not as fast as someone else needs you to.

You don’t “need” investors to build a profitable business.

More often than you’d think, you can launch your business and make the cash register ring — all without investors. When you do it on your own steam it may happen more gradually, but it will be on your own terms. The upside is that your skills and abilities will grow as a business owner, which will serve you for the life of your business and beyond.

There are other perks to bootstrapping as well. Your learning curve is more likely to keep pace with your company’s growth, which means you won’t find yourself in over your head.

And let’s not ignore the benefits of flying under the radar. When you’re running the show by yourself, you can make mistakes, work out the kinks of your business and exploit advantages without the pressure and prying eyes of outsiders, investors, the media and competitors. (This is why some companies don’t ever go public.)

And when you’re bootstrapping, you have just the right amount of skin in the game. Everything matters, and so everything gets attention. It’s easier to maintain a laser-focus on perfecting your offerings, your operations and the customer experience.

Bootstrappers often walk away with more.

Here’s what almost nobody tells you: founders who bootstrap often pocket more money when they sell — even when they sell for far less.

It sounds backwards, so let me explain. Every time you take money from investors, you give away a piece of ownership in your company. Take money several times and, by the end, you might own only a small slice of the business you built. On top of that, investors write their deals so they get paid back first — sometimes two or three times their money — before you see a dollar.

Picture two founders. One bootstraps and sells their company for $50 million. They own all of it, so they walk away with $50 million. The other takes years of investor money, grows huge, and sells for $200 million — four times bigger! — but after everyone ahead of them gets paid, they pocket less than the bootstrapper did.

This isn’t the exception. It’s how the game is built to work. Too many founders have sold their companies for hundreds of millions, yet walked away with less than they’d have made keeping a steady paycheck after a decade of grinding.

Build it on your own terms, and when you sell, the money is yours — not theirs.

Bootstrapping is an ideal way to set yourself up for attracting investors later.

None of this means raising money is necessarily the wrong call. My issue isn’t with investors across the board — it’s with taking venture money too early, before you’ve got the kind of traction that lets you negotiate from a position of strength.

If, down the road, you do decide to look for outside investors, building a profitable business while bootstrapping puts you in a far stronger position when it’s time to pitch.

When you’ve built a growing business with a proven track record, you’ve got something better to offer than simply a shiny new idea. In other words, you’re not starting from a position of weakness begging, hat in hand, hoping they’ll say “yes.”

And that puts you in a position of strength. You’re coming in with something tangible and valuable — and that gives you a lot more negotiating power.

In the meantime, though, you can work on building that thriving business. And if you’d like help discovering the strategies and tactics that will get you there, you can book a call.