Tag Info

You are sadly deluded in thinking that your employees should work so much for you just because you think they should. Why do you think making them work more hours is going to be a net benefit? It likely will not. You think 55-60 is reasonable because you have a huge stake in the company. They do not. What makes you want to work there for so many ...

Ramping up your employee hours to 55-60 hours is going to end up ruining your startup. I get you think more hours equals more work which in turn equals a faster turnaround time for completion, but you're setting yourself up to fail. An employer of which I will not name I previously worked at, well more-so the manager I worked with thought this was a good ...

The good news is it can be done. I have 3 kids, and I managed to squeeze out 10-15 hours per week to work on my latest project. I've also tried and failed at a previous startup idea that I spend 6 months working on in a similar capacity. I work alone as I've yet to find a co-founder that will put their weight (I've tried believe me). The things I learned ...

I'd advise you to judge people based on how they meet their deadlines, not the time they leave for home. I managed people whose 16 hour work day produces less than what other people do in 5 hours. After 20+ years as a developer and development manager, I can tell you no one really codes efficiently 16 hours a day, at least not continuously. Wanting to amp ...

I run a company that creates and manages web based tools that businesses subscribe to. My staff are all over the world (only 1/3 of our staff are in our state). So we are far more likely to experience what you mentioned than someone with all staff in a centralized location. Some of our successful actions for the exact situation you are talking about are: ...

You admit that your obsession is creating problems with your family. If you were creating problems with your business would you just let that happen? No, you'd probably do something about it. You can still work long hours but it's not unreasonable for a wife to ask you to come to bed on a Friday night. Oh, what a burden to go to bed with your wife! Do you ...

It doesn't matter how long you are in your journey there's always a struggle Everything that is worth doing takes a long, long time to achieve and only comes about through continual effort You only make progress through long days and long nights and occasional lack of sleep You can't plan for everything that gets thrown your way Everything costs money (big ...

JFW, this is a tough question. Actually, I just went through the same thing, though my project is based locally, not solely virtual. I know how you're feeling. A few months ago, I quit my job and told myself that I was 'going for it'. Things were great and fun in the beginning. I was working hard, scheduling everything and making a lot of headway. However, ...

You have no control of him or his work. He does not work for you. He works for the VC. Your best bet will be to work with him. And that will be hard to do. Any attempt to create transparency or accountability of his activities may be experienced as trying to control him. Which will likely result in resistance or backlash. You need to build trust with ...

You've established a successful business - excellent start! And you've now become more systematic and effective in what you do. You've built order out of chaos, and it's paying off. That's even better! And now there's this new idea... Well, the good news is that you're in a great position to become the lazy entrepreneur you aspire to be. Job #1 is to ...

JFW, I like Ryan's response. I want to add from a different angle too. I too recently quit my (well paying!) job to start something of my own. The upside is very high and of course the market risk is high too. I thought I'd not think much about the cash flow because a) I have saved and will be able to go on for 1-2 years without any income and b) my wife has ...

I believe the 'official' 37signals story is that when they were just a web design company they started building basecamp in their spare time, which wasn't very much and forced an efficient development process. However I believe they already had a popular blog which wouldn't hurt the process. As a quick guess they may have done it with 20-40h of total ...

We typically have a few standard metrics we use to run through how much a share is worth: Idea: 3% - 5% - ideas these days are cheap, everyone is having them its execution that counts. Technical: 15%-35% - all developers (including myself) think its worth more but if you don't have the rest in place then its just a cool thing that sits on the shelf being ...

I have a wife and three kids (4,2,1 that is what happens when you work from home) I would say that I could do a better job and balancing work and family but I do the following things I work from home that way I have breakfast, lunch and supper with my wife and kids Kids activities like soccer, school, swimming etc get top propiority and trump everything ...

First, ask yourself how stable is your stable job. I was in a similar situation, I was an attorney in an established law firm, and I struggled with myself a lot when leaving for joining a company that might not be there anymore in one year. Guess what, a flip of the economy and my ex-employer fired 30 attorneys in one day. No advance notice. Finance does not ...

There are a range of things you should think about before jumping in. Potential Negatives: Partner. If you have a partner, do they support you in the transition, are they prepared to take a complete change in lifestyle and in someways be with a completely different person ... You will be focused on different things, you will be driven, you will stressed ...

Have you spent any time thinking about the risks? I think Eric Ries and all of the Lean Startup people are on to something. Their focus is on the uncertainty of starting a venture such as you describe. You can be fairly certain about the technology involved in getting an idea to market, but until you actually try it, you won't know about market ...

LOL - and you are asking other entrepreneurs like me who would answer your question at 1:11 am? Shotokan Karate is my best escape. I'll find myself thinking about business in the inital meditation, but by the time a class is done my mind has been wiped clean ... fully ready for another major business session! (But even in Karate I tend to be a bit obsessive ...

It's an obsession. No other way to say it. There's a quote (I don't know the origin): "Sleep is that time when you work on your business while being unconscious." Is there a balance? I'm not sure. There wasn't for me. My wife had a lifestyle business and eventually there was a good balance but it took years for her to get there.

(This is a reaction to some of the responses, more so than to the question itself.) If you are so obsessed with your business that you have no time for your spouse and children, then, forgive me, but you have a problem that needs to be addressed. If the situation lasts only briefly, or pops up intermittently, that's normal; however, if "obsessed with ...

My startup took a severe hit when I started a new relationship. After I married and got refocused on the business, the relationship took a hit. It has been a dangerous balancing act. My advice would be pick one, get it stable, then move on to the next one. I love my wife and I love my business and they both suffered because I got greedy and wanted both, ...

I have been in the same boat a while back, so trying to answer some of your concerns: I think it's particularly hard to estimate fairness in any organization, especially with startups, when the end product isn't even 100% blueprinted. I think your concern about your loss is totally legitimate. To better help you and your teammates assess each other's ...

I have been there.I was the only developer in a startup and what i realized is that the so called partners handling the marketing part will always over rate their worth,although they will never tell you this. When the marketers tell you they will give you a certain percent,there is always a trick on their side.Once they get the product they will sell it, ...

You'll burn people out and shoot yourself in the foot. I would take a look at this post and my answer: http://pm.stackexchange.com/questions/3953/how-can-i-avoid-team-burnout/3959#3959 It would be nice to avoid burnout in the first place and it seems like you have the opportunity to do that. One note - Do they have equity? That's a huge 'reason' for ...

There are a lot of great comments here but some are answering a different question. I believe the question here is: What parenting skills can you transfer to your startup? Here is my take: Just like kids, a company may never really "grow up". You may have this company in your life for a lot longer than you planned. Your job is to teach. Teach, teach, ...

My CEO just had a baby and it was definitely a learning experience for us (plus I have several very new parents on my team). This stuff is not new to me, but I am still learning and it will come in handy for me. So here are the random lessons I have picked up so far: Don't even think about having a baby, if you have not prepared your company to run with ...

I'm also a web developer, its been a year this month since I went full time working for myself. My business has however been going for about 4 years now in some capacity. You absolutely can do it. The beauty of web development is that its low barrier to entry (you already have a computer and thats pretty much most of what you need) and if you're working ...

It's easy: if your workload is above the norm, so should many other intrinsic and extrinsic motivators follow. Intrinsic ones are like empowerment to make important decisions, or education leading to growing mastery. Extrinsic's best example is bonuses. There's a growing trend to think that extrinsic motivation is weaker or detrimental to outcomes. Dan ...