This is the start of a series of blogs entitled "Business Advice for the 99%". The title of the series refers to the fact that less than half a percent (.5%) of businesses receive venture capital funding. Everyone else (the 99.5%) has to start their businesses with funding from credit cards, home equity loans, savings, retirement distributions, and money from friends and family. These businesses "boot strap" their start ups with elbow grease, sweat, and grit. They provide about half of the private sector jobs in the U.S. but there aren't many books or blogs about them. The media focuses on the so-called "unicorns" that achieve valuations of more than one billion dollars. As only ten percent (10%) of businesses make more than one thousand dollars a year in revenue, advice about how to "blitzscale" your company to $100 million in sales just simply isn't relevant to all but a few business owners. This series is for the normal people. If you want to start a plumbing business, juice company, accounting firm, hemp farm, or trucking enterprise this series if for you. I'll be sharing lessons I've learned from boot-strapping two small businesses myself and working closely with small businesses all day long. I hope you'll be able to learn from my mistakes. It should make your start-up journey slightly easier and improve your chances of success.