As a small bootstrapped startup it is important to keep costs as low as possible. This is imperative because spending even alittle more then you *REALLY* need will not only kill your startup it will also bite into life outside your startup. For us bootstrapped guys the same pot of cash that we use to initially fund the startup at its really early stages is the same pot of cash we use to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. Remember that it is important to spend money wisely and negotiate everything (have no shame!) because if your startup fails your life isnt over and you need money to live of.
Together our team has learnt that are many ways of keeping things on the cheap. Money can be saved on items such as servers (specially with good negotation skills) a large saving can be had by moving back home or together with family, possibly moving into a cheaper location and on the food front buying healthy but bulk buy groceries also adds to savings. If you do your own research you can also save money on some company paperwork by doing things on your own though just be sure your not setting yourself up for pain later. Do what you can now and what you cant leave till later. (either after you have done more research, raised some money or bumped into that great friend of yours that did law during uni ;))
Also remember that when you start a startup there is a commitment to be made so the amount of activities that you used to indulge in prior to your startup such as scuba diving, sky diving or overseas trips need to change ($100 MATTERS! Its half a month cost for servers). Suggestions are bushwalks, the beach, getting the guys around for soccer or football, pool and even some poker nights where its just a couple beers, couple guys and alot of screaming. These activites are cheap fun and keep you sane and relaxed after a hard session of coding. There is no reason to get unhealthy and lock yourself away for months on end without seeing daylight, the only thing to remember is when you do go out your activities need to change from what they previously may have been.
One of the things that you can also save on is your working area. Whether its the garage, your room, the lounge room or the local library with wireless access its important that you still have the office feeling where your focused, serious and where work gets done. Its also import that you can easily colaborate with the team such that you feel they are next to you even if they are on the otherside of town. Thanks to alot of other startups there are many tools online that have been developed that help with making any location with a wirless access feel like a fully fledged collaborative capable office.
Some of the tools that that help you build your virtual office that i'd like to talk about and that i have found exceptionally useful are dropbox, google apps, gmail/gtalk and etherpad.
Dropbox: Dropbox is a great tool for sharing files without any overhead. Once dropbox has been installed dropbox basically creates a folder on your local harddrive that is sync'd to the main dropbox servers. Dropbox can be used as a simple backup system but it also allows any files within those directories to be shared to others who have a dropbox. Any file that has been placed within the shared folder will be present for any user to see who has the right privlidges no matter where they are. Extremely useful and in a virtual office dropbox acts as your fileshare or network drive that most corporates have which is usually used to store documents etc.
Google Docs: Google docs is basically the online replacement for MS office/Staroffice/Open office. There is the spreadsheet tool, the presentation creator (similar to powerpoint in Ms office) and the document editor (similar to ms word). Basically all the tools required to open, edit and modify documents.
Gmail/Gtalk: Allows the team to communicate in realtime. Gmail used as the email system for your virtual office and gtalk for discussing issues and problems in realtime either through text chat or webcam.
Etherpad: Etherpad is a great tool for discussing and correcting code in realtime. When there is some problem with the code or anything related to the code that we want to discuss etherpad makes it easy to paste the porition of code in question by either marking, moving, highlighting and writing in suggestions on what can be done to rectify the issue. If Mark can fix a problem that i cant, i simply paste the portion of the code in question, he edits it with his suggestion that i can see in realtime, then once we are both happy i will copy and paste the code back into the code base.
So there you have it, some cool tools that can help save you and your team money whilst still allowing you to have that office feeling and the ability to collaborate seemlessly from any location powered by a wireless.
