Bootstrapping a cash-only business: How community paves the way to success

The background:

Diagnosed with schizophrenia at 21, I struggled for years with disability; supported by parents, community members, and friends. Choosing to make art for a living might have seemed foolish to an outsider looking at my financial history – marked by mental illness-related instability. But in 2019, after years of struggling to hold down a full-time carpentry job, I knew I had to structure my life in a way that supported me.

Ever since I was a child, I have been drawing. I copied comic books, movies, novel covers, "how to draw" books – and built a visual and stylistic language by the time I was a teenager. Drawing was in my bones, and choosing to pursue it as a career felt risky – but I made the decision with my whole chest.

To lay my carpentry career to rest and continue my education in illustration felt ambitious, motivated by a desire not only to find personal satisfaction in work, but also to structure my entire working life around rest and recovery.

But there was an element of self-doubt, too. While applying for school, I thought I was making a poor financial decision. Schizophrenia had limited my decision-making capabilities in my 20s, and I thought I'd get pushback from family and friends. But to my surprise, everyone was supportive.

If there's one message I hope you take away from this article, it's that I didn't do anything alone. People who attribute their success to only themselves are lying or forgetful. It takes a village to build a business.

How the business began to form:

I owe much of my success to CEED (Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development).

In 2024, I was laid off from my job in print design, and was finding it difficult to find consistent work in my field. I had worked for a few years as an entry-level print designer with signage and print shops around the city, and Canada was just entering its employment crisis, the effects of which we're still feeling today. I needed money. CEED helped pave the way. (I will always recommend their programming to anyone in Nova Scotia who asks me about starting a business – they are helpful, kind, and truly believe in the viability of most ideas. Many countless successful businesses in Nova Scotia have begun as part of CEED's curriculum, and their track record is excellent)

CEED helped me clarify the "why." What my business is, and why people should hire me. Every business has its own unique answer to these questions, and mine would be different from yours, so I won't give away my answer here. But their program also helped me decide how much money to charge, financial forecasting, and a bit of early accounting.

Armed with intimate knowledge of what I had to offer, as well as practical skills and day-to-day responsibilities, and funded by CEED's SE Program, which provided free government funding to pay my monthly expenses while I started out, I started networking like crazy.

Networking. Seriously, just talk to people.

As someone whose 20s were marked by mental illness and instability, my credit was in the gutter. Not having access to easy and affordable credit, I had to build my business using cash only. This meant that my expenses had to be low, and my income sustainable. I started achieving all of my sales through networking.

Networking can feel hard, especially if you're at all shy, or have difficulty managing your social battery – but it's essential that you do it. Here's how I did it:

• Find a local "connector" website. For me, it was Digital Nova Scotia's events calendar.
• Find free events on a local calendar that repeat every month. Go to them. Talk to people about what you're starting. People will be 99.9% supportive and try to help you.
• Max out your connection requests on LinkedIn, or your social medium of choice. You don't need to be a "thought leader" yet, you're building a community.
• (Optional, but not really) Cold outreach. Be strategic. Reach out to new connections with a request to have coffee. Don't just close your eyes and hit "send" on thousands of requests, though. Find people who might have insight to share with you, and offer to buy them a hot beverage. Ask lots of questions.
• Talk to Everyone about your business. Your values. The kind of work you'd like to be doing. Post examples of work on your social media, and write about what motivated the work. Show people what you're up to behind the scenes.

Remember to keep going to those in-person events!

Slowly but surely, you'll be doing 3 things:

1. Building a community around your work
2. Positioning yourself as an expert on the kind of work you do
3. Priming people to think of you when someone needs a referral.

Thanking people.

I wouldn't be here without my family and friends, too. My partner has a stable government job for when times are tight. My parents have supported me through years of disability and chronic illness.

The goal is not to never rely on other people. Relying on your community is inevitable, and everyone does it.

The goal is to build a business that helps increase your capacity to give back. One day, if all goes well, you will be the person supporting the next generation of business owners, mentoring students, paying for your child's education, or caring for your elders.

Human relationships run the world. My lens comes from being a disabled person in a community that has offered me deep support, but the CEO who networks closely with his buddies in finance is also engaging in communities of support.

It is imperative that you a) ask for help when you need it, and b) practice gratitude as a member of any community that supports you. If your family connections are strained, maybe your friends are telling everyone they meet about your business. That is tangible support, and it helps build your capacity.

It's hard...but not that hard.

Everyone chooses their hard. The person working a thankless day job that pays them good, consistent money at the end of the week – money they can count on, has chosen their hard.

But you can choose a different hard, if you want. I won't say that self-employment has been entirely easy. But what feels harder than self-employment to me is a lack of control. I don't actually mind leaner months, eating canned beans when times are tight, or watching my finances like a hawk, because I prefer the promise of financial freedom. All my career decisions being mine to own and take responsibility for is a hundred times preferable than doing busywork and waiting for a paycheck.

I hear "thought leaders" talk about how earth-shattering and difficult entrepreneurship is. And every time, I sort of disagree. Yes, it's hard sometimes. But you might be the right kind of person to enjoy the challenge. When you're engaged, good at networking & sales, and doing work you love, challenges swim past you daily and you don't even notice that you're solving them.

You can build a cash-only business like I did, or you can go the credit route and build something larger-scale, quicker. But in my experience, the "limitations" of cash have allowed me to dig deep roots, planting my business firmly in my community, and hustling like crazy to make each sale. These skills, and the strength of community have allowed me to build steadily and sustainably – day by day, month by month, year over year.

And you can, too.