102. The Art of Bootstrapping: Ruby Cole Ellis on Building a Seven-Figure Business With Faith and Financial Wisdom

Venture into the realm of savvy self-funding with our esteemed guest, Ruby Cole Ellis, a paragon of entrepreneurial wisdom who's crafted a seven-figure business from the ground up. She's not just a businesswoman; she embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the Proverbs 31 woman, pairing her unyielding faith with financial acumen. This episode promises a treasure trove of insights into the heart of bootstrapping, revealing strategies that extend beyond mere buzzwords and into the actionable steps of business ownership.

With Ruby's journey as our map, we navigate the intricate landscape of investing personal funds and embracing a 'net zero' financial strategy. Our discussion reveals the significance of having 'skin in the game' and we share firsthand experiences in striking the balance between discipline, patience, and meticulous planning. Unearth the secrets to minimizing costs and reinvesting in your dreams, all while keeping firm control of your growing enterprise. This conversation is a beacon for anyone daring to cross financial hurdles, using their resources with intelligence and conviction.

As we conclude our enriching dialogue, we touch upon the art of delayed gratification and the replicability of bootstrapping, embellished with success stories from clients and personal anecdotes. This episode will bolster your understanding of how steadfast patience and unwavering discipline can lead to a self-sustained business foundation. Let Ruby and I guide you through this journey, filled with empowering advice and practical wisdom, as you step into your own land of prosperity with Divine partnership lighting your entrepreneurial path.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Is it entirely possible to run a business on the smallest investment you could possibly make? The answer is yes. My friend, ruby Cole Ellis, is gonna share how she bootstrapped her business, how she has made seven figures in business with the bootstrapping method, and I am excited for her to share all of her wisdom and insight with you because, I promise, if you have ever had a money objection to starting a business, she is going to flip that right on its head. So enjoy, my friend. The Bible says in Numbers 14-8, and if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land, flowing with milk and honey.

Speaker 1: 0:43

On this podcast we talk about stepping into that overflow that God has for us by becoming those ultimate Proverbs 31 women. Hey, I'm Lemon, I am just like you, I'm a woman, I'm a woman, I'm a woman, I'm a woman, I'm a woman, I'm a woman. I am just like you. Sister Friend, I knew God had something more in store for me, but I couldn't see a way out of the laundry piles and, frankly, I resented that. Proverbs 31 woman. How was I going to live up to the hype? That isn't until I found out how to really step into becoming this Proverbs 31 woman through leadership development. In this podcast, you're going to find financial freedom, leadership, growth and motivation so you'll be able to do all the things God has called you to do with ease and really step into that land of milk and honey.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Welcome back to the Milk and Honey Podcast. I'm your host, lemon Price, and I'm so excited because I have my super beautiful she is seriously one of the most beautiful women I've ever met, ruby Cole Ellis. She is a business woman, she's a designer, she's a business coach. She's originally from Guatemala how cool is that? And she's lived in Canada for the last 11 years and guys, she is currently guys, she's so beautiful she is so close to giving birth to her beautiful twins, which I'm just.

Speaker 1: 1:57

she's the most beautiful pregnant person I've ever seen in my whole life. Ruby is just so passionate about women's empowerment and teaching women how to manage life and work while partnering with God, which is amazing. Listen to that. Ruby here hit her first million-dollar valuation with her first startup at only 25. She was named Business Woman of the Year by the Sylvan Lake Chamber of Commerce in 2021. She's a GPA ambassador with me. She was the winner of the 2023 Spirit Award, which we voted for her and nominated her, which is just amazing, and I just love Ruby. So thank you for being here, friend.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Thank you so much and I love that introduction. I love you so much too.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Oh my gosh, I love you. I'll clip it for you so you can have it, and anytime you're like. I don't feel that great about myself to remember, or your husband's coming your way.

Speaker 2: 2:47

I'm gonna have that as yeah, as my alarm. I'm gonna switch, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1: 2:51

I got you covered. So I'm excited because Ruby here friends, she spoke a girl by her lines about bootstrapping. Then she did a talk at GPA about bootstrapping and everybody was obsessed. I think you probably could have done that talk for 73 hours and people still would have been taking notes, which was amazing, and so I wanted to bring you on to talk about bootstrapping, because everybody here is pulling yourself up by your bootstraps on those things Like what the heck does it actually mean and how do we do it. So I'm excited You're here, friend.

Speaker 2: 3:26

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. You're right, bootstrapping is one of those things that is super trendy right now. If you follow any type of blogs or influencers, so talk about bootstrapping and it's just a trendy word. But a lot of people don't really know what it is, but bootstrapping has been used as a term in business forever. Pretty much in a nutshell, bootstrapping is self-funding. That's it. But the roots of the word, or why we use it, it's precisely like that. It's used to just talk about oneself in the 1800s, especially where there were a lot of mountain climbing and a lot of expeditions, where they would talk about pulling oneself by the bootstraps or literally being able to do something really hard on your own. And so that's where the term comes in, because with bootstrapping, it's not just about funding your business, it's about funding it on your own, and it is the hard way. So you really have to tighten up your bootstraps to be able to do that, and if you do it properly, it is a very successful, sustainable way to start a business, and so I really love that and I have done it in multiple startups already and I've done a couple of the different kinds of bootstrapping, so I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about the difference, because a lot of people may be thinking, okay, it's just using your own money. But there's a couple of different ways, and so there's a lot of really creative ways where you can bootstrap your business, and so the first one is just be very proactive. So that is literally contributing your personal equity. So that is what most people think of a bootstrap, and usually you do this when a Maybe it's like a side hustle, so you have your nine to five, and then you have your five to nine. So you might want to use your own funds to fund this new endeavor. And with my GPA business, as you mentioned, we're both ambassadors. I use this strategy myself for funding my GPA business, which I think can probably be a whole different episode as well, but so that's the strategy. That's the most common strategy.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Now, the reactive bootstrapping method it's called calculated death. So what you do is the same thing you still use your own funds. So, whether it's savings, maybe you have a credit card or a line of credit and you pretty much invest what you need to for example, $5,000, $10,000. And then you work your way up, plan to pay yourself back. And so you can say, ok, the complete money fund that I need to get started is $5,000. And so I'm going to go ahead and then calculate how much I would need to put back into that money fund to be able to pay myself back. And that's really good as well, as long as it is calculated, and that's why I want to emphasize that we're calculated death.

Speaker 2: 6:26

I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs yes, there's business school, but a lot of us are just really passionate about what we do, and so we're so focused on the passion and maybe getting started that we just spend. And then next thing we know we have a massive credit card bill and it's just this thing that we can't keep up. And so now the interest is racking up and every payment that you make is pretty much not making any dent on the debt. And that's usually, I would say, where most entrepreneurs fail is in the debt portion of investing in your own new business. I would say probably 90% of businesses fail on that stage. And so calculated debt is not bad as long as you have a plan. And as you have a plan before you get a debt interest. And then the third one, it's the net zero one. It's one of my favorite. So it's pretty much cutting or avoiding costs or using things you already have to invest in your business. And an example could be you go into your bank statement and you realize that you're subscribed to winning apps that you don't even know what they are, and so you're telling them all off and say they add up to $200. And so what you do is you say you know what I've been able to manage with those expenses. So instead of not just canceling the subscriptions, I'm going to cancel them, but now that money is going to go into my business. So it's an expense that you already had, but now you're redirecting it.

Speaker 2: 8:03

Another way is also selling things. We all have clothes, electronics, things that don't work that you can sell, and then that money you use and reinvest. And I love that, because I call it the hidden treasures method. We all have stuff somewhere that is worse, something, and sometimes we forget that money is energy and it's just stale energy sitting somewhere collecting dust. Whether it's designer clothes, whether it's electronics, whether it's antiques, whatever it is, we can use that, and I think that puts you in a really good state of being grateful, because it's stuff you already have, and so I would say that is one of my favorite methods for small investing. So if you have a business opportunity that the entry is very small, I always say if you don't have the funds, I bet you there's some hidden treasures in that garage that can get you started. So those are the three methods In a nutshell. That is what bootstrapping is.

Speaker 1: 9:07

I love this because I definitely thought it was only the first type of bootstrapping right, so I'd never thought of the other ones at all, but I love how I was thinking about this while you were talking. If you ever watch Shark Tank, they always ask how much of their own money they've put in. Versus investors, they want to know that you have skin in the game too, which I always think is a little intro. I never thought about this until you started speaking. It's important for other people to see that you have some equity and put your own money into it. Has that been your experience when you talked to people, or how does it change your perception too? I guess it's like when you think about your business, you're like I put X amount of dollars in any of those methods, like I feel like that's a silly shift.

Speaker 2: 9:54

So I'm going to speak as my business coaching perspective the people who have put even a small amount as investing in their business had such a higher chance of success versus the ones who'd never put a dime on it, and that is because they do have that skin in the game.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I also think that it tackles into let's think about it you have the boots and then you're tightening them up and you're doing literally the hard way method, which I also think is very gratifying. There is something about you doing it, maybe the slower way, the more sustainable way, the more calculated way, and then when things start working out, there is that higher sense of accomplishment than if it's not your money or you could just hand it that business to you or inherit it. Like there is something about it, and so it definitely does change my perspective when I'm talking to someone who maybe is looking for angel investors or anything like that, to know do they have skin in the game, have they gone through the tough roads? And because then they're passionate about it, they're not going to probably quit.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Ooh, I love that you said that and I love that you brought up angel investors and things like that, because I would love to know, because you could go an investor route, like you could just go straight to investors. I've had plenty of friends who that's exactly what they did. They went to investors and I saw what happened to their businesses and it wasn't always great because they didn't have any of their own money in. But I would love to hear some of the pros and cons of bootstrapping versus going to find investors or all of those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 11:34

For shares. The cons of bootstrapping, I think number one is it requires extreme discipline. If you are not a disciplined person, bootstrapping is not for you. It requires, like all the strength in the world to not pull that money out or to have patience, to be creative, and you really need to have that discipline. And so if you struggle with discipline, I would say you might need to wanna have some type of partner that is gonna manage the discipline financial side, because bootstrapping can be very exciting if people do it for a month or two after it and then they quit because it's the harder way.

Speaker 2: 12:19

Number two the delayed gratification. It is a slower process. You literally are having a seed and then you plant it, and then you get an apple and you sell it and then you plant it right. It's the slower method of building a business. It's sustainable and the roots and foundations are so strong and it's likely to really withstand. Probably what other businesses don't? That just came out of like nowhere. But you have to also have that patience. If you don't have discipline and patience, you're a very impatient person. This might not be the right method for you and of course, there's always no guarantee for success. But I would say that if you do it the right way and if you are able to withstand this first year of bootstrapping your business, I would say you're already ahead of the game. Like your odds have improved that odd that they talk about vives in. Like most businesses don't make it past the first five years. I would say if you bootstrap the first year, you're definitely gonna make it past the first five years. I very confidently I can say that.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Now there's a lot of problems. The first one is it's very little to no investment If you go to the net zero business. I had a client of mine who started her whole business because she had $28,000 worth of staff in her farm to sell and she just was I never have time and she fully just did that right, and with her it was literally sale, like I'd say like sale energy, just sitting in there, which is she had just been struggling so hard going back to bank to bank trying to get $20,000 and had real, very little credit, All these things that were not on her saver. It was a very risky business. So bootstrap it made it happen. It is a safe way to get your return to your investment.

Speaker 2: 14:11

If you bootstrap you're very gonna be very likely net zero, like some zero very quickly, Like you're probably gonna get back when you put very quickly, I would say even in a couple of months, and so at that point, if it fails, you have that sense of at least you haven't lost money, which I think is a huge pro. It's very easy to replicate. So if you're in a business where you have change, this is huge right. So, whether you're in affiliate marketing, network marketing, if you wanna bootstrap your business, it's very easy to teach others how to teach it to other people. It's not gonna be as easy to know how to treat people, how to manage very complicated cash flows or how to do like banking applications, Whereas this is very it's a very simple concept that can be applicable, and I also think it has very strong foundations for the future. And so you can use it for any business, Like you can use it for a brick and mortar I have, can use it for network marketing, which I have. You can use it for affiliate marketing. You can use it for many kinds of businesses.

Speaker 2: 15:20

I myself has also had angels investors and I can tell me the only business that had failed so far was the one that had investors and I'm not saying investors are bad, I'm just saying you really lose control and I find that here, literally, you have the hand on the straps right Like you.

Speaker 2: 15:37

You're making your own path and I would say that is the biggest pro versus maybe getting capital. Let's face it if you get a traditional line of credit or business loan, there's a lot of things like at the end it is still the bank's money, right and let's say they're gonna wanna try to have their money back, no matter what right, and so there's always that pressure. If you don't get success Quick enough, interest rates can start feeding you up. There might be things like stipulations. A lot of businesses fail during COVID because there are a lot of their investing money came from a bank and of course, banks want their money back, COVID or no, COVID, right. Whereas when you have your own funding, you can change your own rules right. You can slow things down or amp things up without having to have maybe either more or investors or banks right.

Speaker 1: 16:29

I love that. You said that it's like there's control right, and here I always see that when people are on Shark Tank too, I feel like I watched too much Shark Tank, but they're always saying I love it when they're talking about, like, giving up equity or whatever. They always say I don't want to give up that much control, which I always think is such an interesting, because I've never had investors or any of those things and I've never had a need to. All of my businesses have always been service-based and so there wasn't a need for capital. Necessarily, my brain was the capital, but then I think about it, I would really hate it if I had to give up control of things.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Maybe I'm too type A to do that, but that would be super hard.

Speaker 2: 17:10

It is super hard and, like I said once, depending on the type S, and if you start then having things like stocks, it gets even more complicated. With the board like, that is a whole different level of releasing control, that's not just A okay, I have to respond to my bank officer and give them a couple of reports every couple of months and they might have a couple of things to say. This is literally people that can vote you up, which happened to me.

Speaker 1: 17:39

So, yes, yeah, that happened to Michelle Shaper she. They had investors in a business one of the only time they've ever had investors. And they showed up to a board meeting one time and they, like, five minutes later they were voted out and they were gone from their own company.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Yeah, yeah, it can happen. And I would say, especially if you want to start a small business, bootstrapping is an amazing way to get started, that way where you can have full control, and if you have the right attitude and the discipline and the patience, it's wonderful.

Speaker 1: 18:12

I love that. Okay, you probably hear the subjection Ruby. I'm gonna bring it back to something we're both familiar with GPA. People tell you I can't afford to get started. Like, how do you help them when people are like and if you guys are in other network marketing companies, you use the same conversation. But I feel like we hear that sometimes, even though our barrier to entry is not super high, but yeah, but I would love to hear what do you do? How do you deal with that?

Speaker 2: 18:37

Yeah, absolutely. I think that objection is probably the most common in any business. I think there isn't a single sales business that probably the first one you hear is let me think about it, I can't afford it, or not right now. And so number one is clearly A they don't see the value. So I would first approach to see if they truly, if it truly means that they can fund it, or if they don't see the value. Because if they don't see the value maybe explaining it a different way then they can see okay, you know what, I spend that money elsewhere. I rather spend it here and then you can truly see if they really can't afford it, which is, it's a reality, some people legit cannot afford it, then I would go into the bootstrapping of it and so I would say I would have a discussion with their finances and see where they're comfortable.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Proactive would not work because they've already told you they don't have the tab, so we will go into the two other options. So number one, it would be the calculated. That would be, how comfortable would you be putting this in your credit card? And let's have a strategy to pay yourself back at the status box. And so if the entry level is 500, for example, you can say, okay, would you feel comfortable putting it in your credit card? How many sales do I need to do? How many enrollments do I need to do? Is it possible, before the next credit card statement to come in, is it possible to get it back? And if it is possible and we're bluffing them if you genuinely know how to help them, that's a great way, because then literally that money's back and you know what. They haven't even had to pay that credit card. So that's a great way to get started and if you have that kind of strategy, you can literally say you know what your business is gonna sell, whatever is coming out of that credit card. You can create an old, their old bank account For the business, a separate bank account. There's so many free banking apps in the States and in Canada and Europe, and so it can just be a very simple bank account where you can have money coming in and money coming out, and so every month they can just see where they're at. And so it's that, calculated, that right, I'm spending 150 a month, I'm making 150 a month great, some zero. And ideally, of course, you wanna then eventually start having a profit. But that would be a great exercise. Number two would be the net zero. So, going back to that example of, say, the entry-level is $500, I would say, girl, let's look in your garage. I bet you there's things in your closet, in your garage, that you can sell. Or let's look at your statement and let's see where your money is going at. You would be surprised.

Speaker 2: 21:25

When I do this exercise and this is with people sometimes that are established business owners they have all these expenses. They have no clue what they are. I found out I pride myself in being very good at looking at my statements all the time and I didn't realize I was paying Disney Plus twice. I was paying it in two different bank accounts. I had no idea. And so, because every time I looked at the statement I saw it, nothing really stood out. It was like it was coming twice from one bank credit card. It was just coming from two different ones. So I never caught it until I put them next together and I'm like wait a minute.

Speaker 2: 22:05

And so it happens to the best of us. So what you can do is just go and say, okay, what are my hidden treasures, what are things that I can save, that I can unsubscribe from, what are things that I can sell and then use that money for that first traditional investment and then go back to step number two. How can I then make it sustainable for next? So most business have maybe a little bit of a bigger investment at the beginning and usually a slower monthly overhead or membership or subscription or something that you have to go like minimum PVs or things like that, and so you can just say, okay, how much would I need to make every month, or how many team members recruits I would need to have every month so that, moving forward, I don't have to start selling the cat to afford the business you just made from the very beginning.

Speaker 2: 22:57

But those are my two favorite ways for managing that objection. If people really see the value and you give them these two options it releases, it's virtually impossible to then go back and say, oh, I still can't afford it. It's very rare that would happen and so then you would have to go back maybe two. Then they still don't see the value, because at this point we have seen where we could get $500 and they still are not sure, when clearly it's not the money. It's still later on. I'm not sure about the business.

Speaker 1: 23:31

So yeah, oh, ruby, I love this. Okay, we could be here, like I said, we could talk about this for hours, but you have something exciting coming up in GPA, don't you? You want to talk about it.

Speaker 2: 23:43

Yeah, it's taking its life of its own. I've always been passionate about bootstrapping. Like Lemon said, I spoke at Activate Conference last year it's funny to say last year, I feel like two months ago and I spoke about bootstrapping and so I did an expert coaching call at World Power Alliance and these are member monthly calls and after realizing that I've made so much information, it was like drinking water from my fire hose. I knew it was a lot and I was always intended to be a course, and so I will be creating a course on bootstrapping with pretty much like a detail, just overview of how you can do it, examples, apps. Let's learn all these things, and so my hopes is that it can be late spring, beginning of summer. It's going to be part of our amazing library of courses that we had at World Power Alliance. I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 1: 24:38

I'm really excited about it, like I learned something new every single time I talked to you, ruby. You are just so smart and full of so much good information. So, ruby friend, where can everybody go to connect with you?

Speaker 2: 24:53

Thank you. So you can find me pretty much in all platforms. I'm at Ruby Cole Ellis, instagram, facebook, tiktok, and you can connect with me, or you can connect through Lemon as well. We're really good friends, so we'd be happy to support and help you with any questions that you have. Ruby and Slaury.

Speaker 1: 25:12

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Ruby here literal.

Speaker 1: 25:14

I just love you. This was so good. This was so good. Thank you just so much for being here and just sharing and pouring out. I literally took notes while you were talking and I'll take notes while I'm editing, and I'll take notes while I listen to it again when the episode drops, because it's just always so good. So just thank you for being here, ruby friend.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Thank you, I really appreciate the opportunity and thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Hey friend, what a joy it has been to share today's journey with you. If you found a spark of inspiration or a nugget of wisdom that resonated, would you bless someone else by sharing this episode with them? It could be the encouragement they need to step into their purpose and calling. Also, if you could spare a moment to leave a review, it would mean the world to me. I really appreciate your feedback and it really helps our community grow. Remember, the road to discovering God's call for you is how on you have to walk alone. So join me again next Monday for another episode where we'll continue to explore the depths of leadership and the heights of our heavenly calling. Until then, keep seeking, keep growing and keep trusting in His plan. God bless you and I'll catch you on the flip side. Bye, friend.