Save and when you reach the point you think you've saved enough, save some more. Never ever bootstrap a project without savings or a day job, possess monetary discipline and no what you want to do before you do it. If you have a girlfriend/boyfriend understand when you struggle they'll struggle too, so make sure you have some cash saved up to last you a few months before you consider going down the bootstrap route.<p>If you're struggling to pay your bills, you've gone about things wrong.
1. Have an actual job.<p>2. Don't pay for anything unless you absolutely cannot do without it.<p>3. Don't pay for things that you can acquire or make with some schlep. The equation of "I shouldn't be doing X because my time is worth Y" only works if your time is <i>actually</i> worth Y.
I work a $DAYJOB as a software consultant at Open Software Integrators[1]. Basically I travel and work on projects ranging from greenfield development to performance tuning, to architectural consulting, training, proof of concept projects, etc., etc. Mainly we focus on OSS Java related "stuff" like JBoss, Tomcat, Spring, Hibernate, Neo4J, Hadoop, etc.<p>The tough part is the travel bit. When I'm on the road, it makes it a lot tougher to collaborate with my cofounder, meet with potential customers, etc. But I'm not out all the time, and I manage to work around it all somehow, even though it's pretty stressful.<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.osintegrators.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.osintegrators.com</a>
Earn a profit and focus upon revenue and creating a real sustainable business as early in the process as you can. Anything else and you are gong to bleed or not have enough time to develop your product and idea. I call this limited goals and you need it to survive. You have to have the discipline and intestinal fortitude to hit your revenue targets each and every month. Bills don't magically pay themselves, and as you watch your account dwindle you can estimate how long before you hit zero.<p>We've been doing this for 10 years and growing like gangbuseters.
I don't think there is a right answer to this question but in my opinion it depends a lot on your responsibilities.<p>If you have got dependent family on you donot do it without some form of cash flow coming in.<p>If you do not have dependents and you are young take the leap with faith and from somewhere somehow things will just move along as long as you believe in it. Thats what I have seen in mine and my friend's case
1. Save up to give you runway for 1-2 years of bare minimum living + funding your startup.<p>2. Live with your parents if you can (I'm Indian, and that's totally ok for us) - it helps a lot not to have to pay rent & basic living costs.<p>3. Try and find alternate sources of money while you bootstrap. Ex: Selling stock photos/footage, selling code modules, stocks etc.
It'll be tougher than you anticipate. You can keep doing side gigs that pay the bills.
If you are looking for MVP/prototype creation, do check out the <a href="http://www.theprotoshop.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.theprotoshop.com</a> before you jump into something full time.
Focus on profitability. As a bootstrapper who doesn't have the luxury of financial freedom, you also don't have the luxury to work on something unprofitable.
God has made it possible for me when it should not have been possible at all. Somehow, God proves that He is real to me in that against all odds I keep going. All of these answers in this thread that I have read are great answers for doing all that you know how to do. Sometimes it takes God to put you over when nothing else can. If all else fails, try God! Lol!