I have a “Rule of Time in Startups”: How much time does a bootstrapped company take? All of it.
Even ten people could hardly keep up with everything you do in small business — creating, consulting, designing, fixing, self-promotion, blogging, networking, bookkeeping, taxes, customer support and cultivation, reading startup blogs for ideas and inspiration (!), and all those little crappy things like losing an afternoon troubleshooting your fancy outsourced IP phone system that was supposed to let you “work from anywhere.”
One, two, or even three people can’t do everything, so of course it takes all your time. If you’re working a day job while starting something on the side, of course you don’t have time to exercise or play with your kids before bed.
It takes obsession to make a little company go.
Jason Cohen, Sacrifice your health for your startup, from his A Smart Bear blog.
Dean: I don’t completely buy his main premise… but then, we’re not successful yet!
