Episode 333: Bootstrapping Your Way to a Sellable Business with Laura Roeder of MeetEdgar

Shownotes: http://fizzleshow.com/333


Who are your online business heroes? Which businesses are doing this entrepreneurial thing brilliantly? Someone we look up to a lot is Laura Roeder, founder and CEO of MeetEdgar. Today we will be doing an inspirational deep dive on her path and philosophy behind bootstrapping her business and growing online!

There are so many ways to build the company that you have always wanted! Hearing from someone who has worked in this space and managed to achieve many of their own goals in their own unique and tailored way, can be such an affirming message for everyone out there pushing.

In this episode we talk about the benefits of bootstrapping your startup. We discuss finding your own way through money and hiring instead of relying solely on venture capital. Laura shares insight about how to keep in mind the idea of building a sellable business while creating something you believe in. Laura also gives us her thoughts on the role of social media for today's entrepreneur!

Laura Roeder started out in the online space over ten years ago and since then has built information and software-based businesses, the most recent of which is MeetEdgar. The company was based on a method that she developed beforehand for streamlining and optimizing social media strategies and with the coding expertise of her partner, she turned this into software and a company!

We also talk about the integral roles of unique skills, personality, creativity in a startup, and the variables of the startup model. Laura busts a few myths along the way about things having to be done in a certain way! Get the full scoop on episode 333 of the Fizzle Show!

Today’s episode is brought to you by Podia.

Podia is a Swiss Army Knife for selling anything you need online. It's an all-in-one digital storefront where you can sell courses, memberships, and digital downloads all in one place.

The cool thing about Podia is that they eliminate all the technical headaches. You don’t have to install anything, you can host your sales pages there, your files, your checkout process. You can even do your email marketing and your newsletters from Podia!

Fizzle Show listeners can get 15% off of Podia FOR LIFE by signing up for a free trial over at http://podia.com/fizzle.

Key Points From This Episode:

Laura's early entrepreneurial experiences and how she got started around 2008. [0:02:34.6]
A quick introduction to MeetEdgar and the service that it provides. [0:07:01.2]
Amplifying your message on social media and doubling down on popular posts. [0:11:02.8]
Transitioning to a sellable business and understanding this journey [0:16:22.3]
The effect that making MeetEdgar a sellable business had on Laura's relationship with it. [0:20:08.1]
Building a team to grow the business while bootstrapping your growth. [0:22:29.4]
Salaries and finding the funds to hire a team in the early stages of a business. [0:26:20.2]
Juggling family, personal time and the constraints of a new company. [0:30:50.7]
Laura's own ambitions when starting MeetEdgar and focussing on operations. [0:37:38.5]
The place of social media in our businesses; how much space should it occupy? [0:42:45.8]
And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Fizzle — https://fizzle.co
Podia — https://www.podia.com/fizzle
MeetEdgar — https://meetedgar.com
Laura Roeder — https://lauraroeder.com
The 4 Hour Work Week — https://fourhourworkweek.com
Chris Guillebeau — https://chrisguillebeau.com
Social Brilliant — https://meetedgar.com/social-brilliant-ebook/
Built to Sell — https://www.amazon.com/Built-Sell-Creating-Business-Without-ebook/dp/B004IYISQW
Nathan Barry — https://nathanbarry.com
ConvertKit — https://convertkit.com
Sarah Park — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-park-945b4522
Battered Bastards of Baseball — https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_battered_bastards_of_baseball
Deloitte — https://www.deloitte.com
Tim Ferriss — https://tim.blog
Shark Tank — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442550/
Kylie Jenner — https://www.instagram.com/kyliejenner/?hl=en
Fizzle Roadmap — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/small-business-roadmap-1-clarity
Fizzle Try 5 — http://fizzle.co/try5
Fizzle Productivity Essentials — https://app.fizzle.co/library/productivity-essentials
Fizzle Name Evaluator — https://fizzle.co/?s=name+evaluator
Fizzle Customer Conversations Course — https://app.fizzle.co/courses/customer-conversations
Fizzle Define Your Audience Course — https://fizzle.co/guides/defining-your-audience
Fizzle Goals Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/goals
Fizzle on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fizzle
Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://app.fizzle.co/just-ship-it-challenge
Fizzle Sparkline — https://fizzle.co/sparkline
Fizzle Journaling Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/journal
Fizzle Essentials of Web Design Course — https://fizzle.co/library/essentials-of-website-design-for-business-builders
Fizzle Website Tune Up Curse — https://fizzle.co/courses/tuneup
Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web
Fizzle Toolkit — https://fizzle.co/toolkit
Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/craft-commerce
Fizzle Project Management for Entrepreneurs — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs
Fizzle Hosting — https://fizzle.co/hosting