The great benefit of being open about the building of Syntagma Media as a business and as a digital network is that the posts I write here can easily form the kernel of a book. Indeed they do : The Syntagma Story, to be published by Dial Publishing later this year.

The other less obvious advantage is that it may, in some small way, help others following along the same path. There are lots of pitfalls in this business and sometimes a word to the wise can avert an inevitable disaster.

None more so than in the area of finance. So here are a few notes — nothing more at this stage — on this potential minefield for all businesses.

I’ve long been an advocate of self-dependence in business, particularly at the startup and early stages. This is sometimes called “bootstrapping” in the sense of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”.

I’ve always preferred “self-resourcing” — using own-resources for the seed funding stage. Thereafter, in an ideal situation, income will fund growth and the business will be self-financing. All other sources of spending muscle introduced into the pot should be treated like fissile material — with great caution.

The power of own-resources can vary, of course, but every time you use the resources of others, whether debt or by share sale, you reduce your power to control the business. Indeed, once the venture capitalists move in you’ve set yourself up for eventual sale or an IPO (Initial Public Offering on the stock market).

Either way, you can no longer look forward to building a business that can be handed down the generations. Unless, of course, you do what Evan Williams did with Odeo and buy back the shares from investors. He had recently sold Blogger.com to Google so was not short of a bob or two. [Update Feb 20 :] Evan Williams has just put Odeo up for sale.

Another own-resource you’ll need to use early on is your brain. Many of the tasks in even a simple business are expensive to outsource. Building a digital network is painstakingly complex, so you’ll need to be up to serverside delvings, setting up websites, understanding Wordpress code, even designing your own inventory. Add to that, the ability to write the first few webtitles, and it comes down to an intimidating package of learning curves to master.

That takes time, and you just have to grin and bear it. Later, you’ll have the cash to induct new writers and splash out on fancy designers, but not at first, unless your credit card limit will bear it.

Those first few sites — Syntagma had 12, all written by me — will mature in the first year and provide the income to grow thereafter. If you bring writers in from the start, you’ll not generate that early supply of funding, especially as a new network needs to offer a good share of the pot in order to attract dependable authors.

If it’s just making money you’re after, you may think the VC route is no bad thing. But if, like me, you build a business for the sheer challenge and exhilaration of it (and as an aid to your writing career), you may not wish to sell chunks of it to often fixed-tracked minds with very different aims from your own.

I’m not saying that VCs are primitive people necessarily, some are extraordinarily civilized : Rick Segal, Fred Wilson and Jason Calacanis (now with Sequoia Capital) spring to mind.

Bootstrapping, though, is not for someone looking for very quick results. If you really are a digital farmer looking for a big buyout, go the venture route by all means. Be aware though, the pitching period is gruelling and long, maybe up to four months even for a relatively small sum. This is because the VCs are already anticipating further rounds of funding. First they put masking tape on your mouth, then they start cutting lengths of twine to restrain your hands, followed by thick ropes to thoroughly encase the rest of your body.

I’m told some people enjoy being trussed up like a turkey, but you may have other ideas.

Bootstrapping a business is for the buccaneers, those swashbucklers who could just as easily appear in a pirate movie. Or else they’re so cashstrapped, there’s no alternative to penny-pinching their way to the top.

So it all comes down to those old antagonists : Time and Money.

If you’re time-rich but cash-poor, bootstrapping is made for you — make sure you have a decent limit on your credit card, though. If you’re cash-rich but time-poor why on earth would you want to start a business in the first place?

Unless, of course, you’re a pirate with a pen — like me.