Work-life balance for entrepreneurs who are parents

Last night I was awakened by the sound of my son crying. He was sick to his stomach, and he would spend the next few hours retching.

It also meant that one parent would have to stay home to keep an eye on him throughout the day. One of us has a steady job that brings in income and health insurance, while one of us doesn't have a fixed office address and works weird hours on two ventures that have yet to bring in a penny of revenue.

Guess who stays home?

Meanwhile, the educational product startup is on hiatus because my partner's wife just had a baby (their second). When do you think we'll be meeting next to move product development along?

I bring up these examples not to criticize my wife and my partner, but to recognize the reality of juggling a business and family responsibilities: No matter how hard you want to charge forward on your venture, you can only go so far in terms of sacrificing your family's well-being.

Where I draw the line often depends on the availability of childcare. My kids rarely see me at night on weekdays, because I am off at meetings or working on the software startup. But they can manage my absence, as my wife is back from work at 5:30 and can watch them. During the day, they are at school or daycare, which allows both me and my wife to work. But when one child is unable to attend school because of illness, or there's a new baby on the scene, that's when the ventures have to take a backseat to family realities.

Time-constrained ...

Sorry for the lack of updates. That usually means progress, and I'm too busy to write. Sometimes, however, it means hopelessness. The software startup is progressing well, the six-month startup had some rough patches but is back on track this week. I'll share more when I have more time. In the meantime, be sure to follow the @iterinc twitter feed. I do post there more frequently, especially when time is lacking ...

When the startup feels stuck

When the startup feels like it's in a rut, or no progress is being made (because of team, money, supplier, distributor, etc.) there are a few options:

1) Hope that the logjam will break up by itself

2) Attack the logjam(s)

3) Attack different problems

4) Hope for an amazing stroke of luck -- someone unexpectedly drops a solution right into your path

5) Other outcome

In my mind, #1 and #4 are possible, but unlikely. Option #2 is warranted, but unpleasant, and sometimes not possible to address (eg., a customer repeatedly blows you off). #3 is a great option -- there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done, and making progress on those fronts can make you feel a lot better.

As for #5, what else did I miss?

What keeps me awake at night as an entrepreneur

I woke up in the middle of the night, with a disturbing thought in my head about the startup:

What the hell am I doing? How can my startup possibly succeed, with competitors lurking out there, little IP, and no money?

The day before, I had a pretty dismal day with the six-month startup (no progress). The tech startup was up and down -- a good lunch meeting with my cofounder in which we narrowed down our next steps, and I did a pretty good analysis of some of the market factors that we need to pay attention to. But we still have so far to go.

In the meantime, I have no income, and many, many costs, including looming student debt (payments start 6 months after graduation).

The worry and anxiety caught up with me in my dream state. Self-doubt regularly surfaces, but this was a particularly bad. This morning I was able to "talk myself down", and pledge to make some real progress tomorrow. But it would help if I had someone to commiserate with at a moments notice (both of my partners were not available).