Last year, you said "end of next year", this year, "2019"

Several entrepreneurs startup businesses and forget to consider one of the most important things- bringing in customers to patronize the business. True enough, the business may be unique and of high quality, but what use is your business if you have no way to tell potential customers that you have a solution to their problems? In this day and age, there are several ways for startup entrepreneurs and even big businesses to promote their businesses without spending too much. If you are a business owner that needs to increase patronage for your business, you need to closely study the following tips.

Publish engaging content about your site– Release content about your business that will engage and interest the average customer enough to go and do research on your business.

Be socially active– The world now communicates via social media so be sure to make your brand known on all the important social media sites, and interact with potential customers.

Learn how to use online marketing tools and free email services. There are a lot of free tools available for utilization of everyone but most of us are ignorant of these services. For example, Mailchimp is a great free service that allows users to send free automated messages, targeted campaigns and marketing emails.

Giveaways– Who doesn’t love freebies? Offering potential customers a chance to win a product or service will definitely spread the word faster than a lot of other marketing media.

Try to be unique so that you can make the news. Even if you aren’t on the front page, once people see brands in the news, they tend to check it out of curiosity.

A satisfied customer is the best form of advertisement. Knowing this, ensure that your services are top notch so that your existing customers can refer you to people.

Source: http://brandsunusual.com/how-market-business-effectively-without-spending-much/?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=art&utm_campaign=bm

Xion:
Those are not civil war bullets... They are corroded because of the soil moisture and whatever may be going on down there.

If they were civil war bullets, they wouldn't be an issue. I'm pulling up resources to prove these came after the civil war.

They just unearthed proof of an averted 'civil war'

I'll be back.

On 2nd thoughts, I found this image. Though I still stand by my first proposition.

Those are not civil war bullets... They are corroded because of the soil moisture and whatever may be going on down there.

If they were civil war bullets, they wouldn't be an issue. I'm pulling up resources to prove these came after the civil war.

They just unearthed proof of an averted 'civil war'

I'll be back.

Do you ever use Litmus for testing? The tests have failed me a few times.

aperture11:
Responsive HTML emails are actually the standard these days. The trend is to design for mobile first as most people view their emails on their mobile phone especially in our market where 83% access the Internet from mobile.
You will need to test really well though as different email clients interpret the codes in different ways and Gmail just dumps your email under the "Promotions" tab which no one really cares to open.
The open rate is also generally higher for responsive emails as opposed to the standard HTML emails.
The only thing that annoys me though is why we have to use tables for layout in HTML emails. If you use Divs and style it, email clients generally strip off your CSS, even when you use inline CSS sometimes.

For fear of messing it all up on some devices/browsers/email clients (some people never upgrade or trust new technologies), I design and set it as non-responsive. I use tables with a fixed with of 600px.

Some other times, I use Foundation email to implement the rwd.

It all depends on the campaign, content and target audience.

No-one doubts that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best footballers on the world stage. His skills and remarkable accomplishments over the years have motivated me in different ways, especially from the business perspective. I’ll love to share some of these lessons.


Establish your brand and let it reflect in all you do
Your Brand Identity is important. Everything about the Ronaldo Brand (CR7) revolves around Confidence — confidence on and off the pitch — from his stance on the ball, to his jubilation when he scores (this is even reflected in his brand logo). You brand basically needs the same union of ideas. Harmonize your mission, vision and action plans. Your website copy shouldn’t say a thing and your Press release, another. Let your logo stand for who you are.

[img]https:///utgsFO[/img]

Never get tired of being excellent
Ronaldo achieved greatness because he worked very hard to be excellent in his game. When asked how he came to have one of the best footwork in the league, Ronaldo said that he has been practicing his technique since he was very young. Even with the numerous awards he has won, he is constantly learning and improving his skills, not just for his team and fans, but for himself. This could be why Ronaldo was seen at the pitch — still practicing and working hard — only a day after he was awarded his second Ballon d’ Or as the best football player in the world. The biggest victim of success is complacency.

[img]https:///4uZDik[/img]

Master the Art of PR + Marketing
According to sports marketing firm, Repucom, In terms of overall marketability, globally, Ronaldo leaves the other European players in his wake,” said the firm which claims 83% of people around the world have heard of the Portuguese superstar. That’s a huge figure that tells so much the marketing of the Ronaldo. His annual income from sponsorship shows that he is indeed the Most Marketable Footballer. Ronaldo is also a superstar on social media with 113.5 million followers on Facebook and 44 million followers on twitter. He uses social media to offer prizes, request fan photos, refute alleged media falsehood and make special announcements. With such a huge fan-base, you don’t need to court the media like you used to.

[img]https:///zXJRtM[/img]

Learn how to act in the Face of Adversity
The defining moment of the 2006 World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo came when he winked at the Portugal bench after fellow Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney was sent off for foul play on Ricardo Carvalho. The Press, the English fans and many neutrals interpreted the wink as joy at getting a club-side teammate sent off and what followed would’ve destroyed a lesser man. Ronaldo thought of escaping from England with Real Madrid offering a deal, but with assurance from Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney that everything was fine, he remained. Then he learned the importance of adversity. From the 2006–07 Season he became a completely different player, far stronger than before who was willing to take on everyone and anyone. He then went on to clinch three Premier League titles (2006–07, 07–08 and 08–09) and one European Cup in which Ronaldo wrote his name in gold in the game’s annals and then his journey to Real Madrid where he became much better, breaking innumerable records.

[img]https:///aKemsA[/img]

Learn to accept and correct your mistakes
When Ronaldo arrived at Manchester United, he was instantly labelled a diver by the press and he did have a tendency to go down easily. He also had a penchant for unnecessary showboating — doing stopovers when a simple pass would’ve sufficed. Opponents learned to pick him out but then he worked on those issues with the coaching staff and picked up the special knack that the best players have — of doing something extravagant only when the situation demanded it. Be humble enough to admit your errors, be wise enough to sift out the excesses and be courageous enough to correct your mistakes.

Your health matters
Cristiano Ronaldo is known as one of the fittest athletes in the world today. Starting out as a skinny teenage football player in 2003, Ronaldo now possesses a physical body that not only allows him to play his best but has also provided him with several multi-million dollar endorsement deals. Being in top physical shape did not occur overnight for him. Cristiano Ronaldo maintains a strict health regimen that includes getting sufficient sleep, avoiding alcohol, sugar and tattoos, exercising regularly and eating a high-protein diet.

For non-athletes, the correlation between success and physical health might not be very obvious. You may not need to have the type of muscles Ronaldo has or have a diet and exercise plan as stringent as his; however, one has to realize that a healthy mind and body means more energy to do what we want in and out of work, be more confident and look better. Besides, what good is success if you are not able to enjoy the benefits of your hustle due to illness and disease?

[img]https:///Nk8SSC[/img]

Celebrate Your Achievements
From winning the World Footballer of the Year to the Ballon d’Or to jet-setting around the world and dating supermodel Irina Shayk to owing some of the most expensive cars, Cristiano Ronaldo definitely knows how to bask in the achievements of his prowess. You need to loosen up and relax your grip once in a while too lest you turn autocratic and dictatorial to your co-workers and colleagues. Take time to enjoy the finer things in life, even this, requires extra care and wisdom

[img]https:///u6lq9c[/img]

Source: https://medium.com/@topazdecimal/some-business-lessons-from-the-life-of-cristiano-ronaldo-3dcd430cbef1#.v0t6q3owm

No-one doubts that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best footballers on the world stage. His skills and remarkable accomplishments over the years have motivated me in different ways, especially from the business perspective. I’ll love to share some of these lessons.


Establish your brand and let it reflect in all you do
Your Brand Identity is important. Everything about the Ronaldo Brand (CR7) revolves around Confidence — confidence on and off the pitch — from his stance on the ball, to his jubilation when he scores (this is even reflected in his brand logo). You brand basically needs the same union of ideas. Harmonize your mission, vision and action plans. Your website copy shouldn’t say a thing and your Press release, another. Let your logo stand for who you are.

[img]https:///utgsFO[/img]

Never get tired of being excellent
Ronaldo achieved greatness because he worked very hard to be excellent in his game. When asked how he came to have one of the best footwork in the league, Ronaldo said that he has been practicing his technique since he was very young. Even with the numerous awards he has won, he is constantly learning and improving his skills, not just for his team and fans, but for himself. This could be why Ronaldo was seen at the pitch — still practicing and working hard — only a day after he was awarded his second Ballon d’ Or as the best football player in the world. The biggest victim of success is complacency.

[img]https:///4uZDik[/img]

Master the Art of PR + Marketing
According to sports marketing firm, Repucom, In terms of overall marketability, globally, Ronaldo leaves the other European players in his wake,” said the firm which claims 83% of people around the world have heard of the Portuguese superstar. That’s a huge figure that tells so much the marketing of the Ronaldo. His annual income from sponsorship shows that he is indeed the Most Marketable Footballer. Ronaldo is also a superstar on social media with 113.5 million followers on Facebook and 44 million followers on twitter. He uses social media to offer prizes, request fan photos, refute alleged media falsehood and make special announcements. With such a huge fan-base, you don’t need to court the media like you used to.

[img]https:///zXJRtM[/img]

Learn how to act in the Face of Adversity
The defining moment of the 2006 World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo came when he winked at the Portugal bench after fellow Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney was sent off for foul play on Ricardo Carvalho. The Press, the English fans and many neutrals interpreted the wink as joy at getting a club-side teammate sent off and what followed would’ve destroyed a lesser man. Ronaldo thought of escaping from England with Real Madrid offering a deal, but with assurance from Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney that everything was fine, he remained. Then he learned the importance of adversity. From the 2006–07 Season he became a completely different player, far stronger than before who was willing to take on everyone and anyone. He then went on to clinch three Premier League titles (2006–07, 07–08 and 08–09) and one European Cup in which Ronaldo wrote his name in gold in the game’s annals and then his journey to Real Madrid where he became much better, breaking innumerable records.

[img]https:///aKemsA[/img]

Learn to accept and correct your mistakes
When Ronaldo arrived at Manchester United, he was instantly labelled a diver by the press and he did have a tendency to go down easily. He also had a penchant for unnecessary showboating — doing stopovers when a simple pass would’ve sufficed. Opponents learned to pick him out but then he worked on those issues with the coaching staff and picked up the special knack that the best players have — of doing something extravagant only when the situation demanded it. Be humble enough to admit your errors, be wise enough to sift out the excesses and be courageous enough to correct your mistakes.

Your health matters
Cristiano Ronaldo is known as one of the fittest athletes in the world today. Starting out as a skinny teenage football player in 2003, Ronaldo now possesses a physical body that not only allows him to play his best but has also provided him with several multi-million dollar endorsement deals. Being in top physical shape did not occur overnight for him. Cristiano Ronaldo maintains a strict health regimen that includes getting sufficient sleep, avoiding alcohol, sugar and tattoos, exercising regularly and eating a high-protein diet.

For non-athletes, the correlation between success and physical health might not be very obvious. You may not need to have the type of muscles Ronaldo has or have a diet and exercise plan as stringent as his; however, one has to realize that a healthy mind and body means more energy to do what we want in and out of work, be more confident and look better. Besides, what good is success if you are not able to enjoy the benefits of your hustle due to illness and disease?

[img]https:///Nk8SSC[/img]

Celebrate Your Achievements
From winning the World Footballer of the Year to the Ballon d’Or to jet-setting around the world and dating supermodel Irina Shayk to owing some of the most expensive cars, Cristiano Ronaldo definitely knows how to bask in the achievements of his prowess. You need to loosen up and relax your grip once in a while too lest you turn autocratic and dictatorial to your co-workers and colleagues. Take time to enjoy the finer things in life, even this, requires extra care and wisdom

[img]https:///u6lq9c[/img]

Airbnb.com

wisolo:
I can't just say anything. Am speechless. Am just waiting on God

Please correct your post while you're still waiting on God. It's "I'm speechless", "I'm just waiting on God"

Some of these little things do matter.

Ilya du Kakanfo

I did mine earlier today, I didn't lose any data. My issues with it is that I don't get to see Caller ID by name for incoming and outgoing calls, meanwhile my contacts are intact. Anyone experiencing the same?

Maybe she was actually showing you the watch...

EroticAngelina:
I'm sure u know I'm nt being paid to read these long stuff

LOl, I don't mind being paid though.

DameAdaobi:


LMAO, this sleep is valid o.

What is eleda? But really, how does her scam purchase affect me?

1st Question: Eleda is Creator.

2nd Question: Really?

I'm dead

flexxyworld:
Eleda ma sun!

LOl, Ko ma sun o

Some people's eleda is on a snooze fest

domido:


Is there a video of the Aburi accord?

Yes there is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXK2Er8UZk

Explorers:
21. Before the War: Gowon & Ojukwu sharing a meal at Aburi, Ghana(Date undocumented).

I'll love you to watch the video of the Aburi Accord again, this time carefully. Ojukwu pretended to eat and drink. He never did. He spit out what he put in his mouth. It's there in the video. But he did smoke, oh yes he did.

Holyfield1:
Igbo kwenu yeeehhh...Won a so e nu yeeehhhh
Why are you people so crude?I was expecting to see beautiful houses not mud huts
Una just dey disgrace us home and abroad,Sha no carry ur Biafra go vagina,sorry Virginia

Really, Nigga?

ifeness:


There is never another one. Just Christian imagination

Then you shouldn't put so much energy into being disgruntled with what you believe is non-existent

ifeness:


The real God is me,you and all those who know how powerful they are,not the bible god who would rather bully primitive people but wouldn't dare approach modern humans who knows the reptilian idiot is a phony

I've always known that I am a God myself, I just didn't know I'm supposed to fight some other God.

ifeness:


Even if your god pass through there he will disappear like the rest. You think your god is anything special. How is he the greatest?

Interesting, I see your word use. I think it's fantastic how you type "god" and "he" in lowercase contrary to how the believers do (in uppercase or title case).

You don't think "he" deserves to be typed in title case, right?

Makes me feel you reserved that for a higher being, just maybe...

Sometimes the Hotspot settings are limited, you can't even get to change the name or password.

Anyone experiencing this flaw?

The flashlight doesn't work when experiencing this, later everything normalizes

Just found out that some other things are wrong after the update. For example, can't send mail via the Gmail app. After typing message, tapping the send button doesn't do anything. Also, some features have been taken off the settings board.

So vexed

an update notification came up earlier today, I did the update and now a few things are wrong with my phone settings.

the most crucial of 'em all is that i can't manage hotspot settings anymore, and hotspot won't work.

really pissed about this, anyone experienced this yet?

How many Yoruba people can pick anything out of those songs?

ariyebaba:
I love what am doing.

By the way, he never made mention of God.

Not everyone lives to acknowledge the might and workings of the Supreme Being, at least not in the same way you do; the Almighty still does his work in everyone irrespective.

He was formerly a Lutheran (Christian Denomination) till he found what worked for him (Zen Buddhism).

Prayer & Spirituality are very important, but they require your own input (character, passion, hardwork, objectives).

I'm a Christian and I reference God in all I do

SacBag:
Thank you OP for this great post
I think I ve found "purpose"

I'm honored to share what a great man wrote

islamics:
It was long but @least I read it all: very inspiring. Get in touch with the inner mind.

As an entrepreneur, I read and watch the clip everytime I think I'm losing touch with my set goals.

Long, but worth the read... Ignore at your own expense.

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

peppyluv02:
Call me a Tribalist but I must say this, the southern soldiers have been pushed to the war front while the northerners are inside the barracks! One Nigeria indeed.
RIP bro. We love you but God loves you most. Adieu!

I wouldn't risk the deployment of Northern soldiers to face the enemy, there's every chance of having a huge number of them being sympathetic to the bandits' cause.

Bootstrapping is the actually good for start-ups, you don't wait till you have all the money or coding prowess to start up on your idea.

The problem lies in remaining where you are for a long while.

In the case of NL, ever heard of Simple Machines Forum?