It's good practice when starting a business to test your idea with the market regardless of the economic conditions. Given that it might be harder to get a job if your idea goes belly-up, you should work extra hard to minimize your risk. One way to do this is by thoroughly validating your idea with as little cost to you as possible.  

The Internet offers several cost-effective ways to test business ideas (particularly if you're starting an online business).

You could use an online survey tool like SurveyKing, SurveyMonkey or other SurveyMonkey alternatives to gather and analyze survey responses.  

99dresses founder Nikki Durkin, tested her business idea on Facebook. She got 40,000 fans in a Facebook group confirming that young girls and women would love a website where they could swap clothes they'd purchased but never worn.  

A more sophisticated approach to validating an idea is a concept (that we love) called “Manual Testing” (which we first learned about via Mick Liubinskas at Pollenizer).  “Manual testing” involves seeing if people would be willing to sign up or 'pony up' (i.e., buy) your service.  

For example, it can involve building a basic HTML website (offering your goods or service), running some Google ads, and then looking at the statistics to determine demand.  

This is a clever, cheap, efficient, and fairly accurate way to test concrete demand, conversion rates, and so on for a product or idea.  (In the offline world, getting a stall at your local market could be a way to do 'Manual Testing' for a brick-and-mortar business.)

Starting your venture, especially during a downturn, you'll want to minimize cost and risk. Having co-founders is a way to power your business without cash and spread the risk that you will carry across multiple talented people.  

While they can cause problems (e.g., Facebook), more often than not, more minds are better than one. Furthermore, many talented people lose their jobs during a downturn and struggle to find new ones. 

Approach them with your idea, show them this article, buy them Richard Branson's book Screw It, Just Do It, and you might be able to snap up your very own Steve Wozniak.   

#4 - Hire interns

Interns can bring fresh energy, new perspectives, and up-to-date knowledge—particularly in areas like social media, design, or tech—where recent grads often shine. They’re digital natives, often self-starters, and many are surprisingly entrepreneurial themselves. With the right onboarding and mentorship, they can contribute real value to your business early on.

But it’s not just about what they can do for you. Done right, offering internships is also about creating a win-win: you get cost-effective support, and they get genuine work experience, mentorship, and something impressive to put on their resume. If you invest in them, many will go above and beyond, and the best part? You may end up hiring them later once you’re in a position to grow.

Just be mindful of the legal and ethical considerations—ensure you’re offering a meaningful learning experience and not just unpaid labor. If you strike the balance right, interns can be one of the most underrated and powerful tools in your early-stage or recession-proofing strategy.

If you’re running a bootstrapped startup, every dollar counts—and this is where smart outsourcing and crowdsourcing come in. Platforms like DesignCrowd.com are an absolute game-changer for founders on a tight budget. Instead of hiring an expensive agency or designer, you can tap into a global pool of creative talent and get professional-level work done at a fraction of the cost.

Seriously—on DesignCrowd, you can get a logo and homepage design for under $1,000. That’s not a typo. You submit a brief, and within days, you’re reviewing dozens (sometimes hundreds) of design concepts from freelancers all over the world. You only pay for the design you love. It’s fast, affordable, and incredibly efficient for getting visual assets that look legit—even if your bank account’s still figuring things out.

Then, once you’ve got that homepage design locked in, send it over to any PSD2HTML service (there are plenty online), and for around $99 they'll slice it up and give you clean, working HTML/CSS. Just like that—boom goes the dynamite—you’ve got a working prototype or landing page ready to show to investors, beta testers, or early customers.

This kind of lean, scrappy execution is exactly what bootstrapping is all about. You're not just saving money—you’re moving fast, validating ideas, and staying focused on what matters: getting your product into the world.

And the best part? There are crowdsourcing and outsourcing platforms for almost everything—copywriting, customer support, research, even app development. The key is to be smart with your spend and only invest in the pieces that move your idea forward. When used wisely, these platforms let you punch way above your weight.

#6 - Consult or freelance (on the side)

Whenever you start a business, you're going to need capital. Entrepreneurs are often optimistic (perhaps not always, but almost certainly when planning an idea).  

A general rule is that it will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you plan. Understanding capex vs. opex—capital expenditures versus operating expenses—is an important consideration for managing your budget effectively and ensuring sustainable growth.  

Whether you have the capital you think you require before you start or not, a good way to fund your idea (before you launch or while you're growing) is to do some freelancing or consulting on the side.  

Whatever your skillset (programming, photography, or strategy), freelancing/consulting is a great way to get a little "something, something" on the side. It pays well (up to $1,500 / day in some industries), and during a downturn, there is strong demand for freelancers and consultants (so, if you're half decent, you shouldn't have a problem finding a contract).