Ask HN: What hours would you work on a side business?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2409562

by wtracy • 15 years ago

7 11 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Assume you have a "normal" full-time job, and you are trying to get a startup together in your spare time. How would you structure your time to avoid burnout?

Would you spend several hours every week night, then have weekends all free? Or would you rather keep your nights free, and treat weekends like more two weekdays, only you work on your project rather than your normal day job?

mindcrime3• 15 years ago

I work almost every "free" hour I can, on my startup project, excepting the occassional "night off" to go to the movies or something, and the rare social outing with friends. I typically leave my day job by 6:00pm, head home, possibly stopping at Barnes & Noble for a coffee and to browse / unwind for a little while, and am home by 7:00pm. If needed, I walk across the street to Food Lion, get groceries, come home, and cook, and eat. Typically by 8pm I'm back working... on a night where I don't stop at B&N or need groceries, I'm working by 7:00 or so. I usually go until near midnight, except Friday night when I work until the wee hours of the morning. Weekend schedule is more chaotic, but I treat both days as full-fledged work-days, committed to the startup.

When I start feeling to stressed, I allow myself a night off and walk across the street to the movie theater, take in a movie, or go out to eat or something, then come home and read some light fiction or something.

kiriappeee3• 15 years ago

I'm just curious. This structure is pretty easy to follow if you are really passionate about what you do.. but just asking if you happen to be in a relationship like being engaged would you have any idea how to give time to everything? Or is that where the line gets drawn? (No not applicable to me... yet..)

slysf• 15 years ago

I followed the structure outlined by mindcrime for almost 2 months with a supportive wife. It really depends on how ready your partner is for you to get serious about a new company. Even once you transition to full time on the new company you should expect the hours to stay the same for a while. We have a standing agreement that I take 1 full day off a month with no laptop access and occasionally I'll take a movie in the evening.

mindcrime3• 15 years ago

Good question... I honestly don't know. I'm single at the moment, and don't really date right now, since I'm just too busy. A relationship would definitely complicate things, but this is pretty important to me, so any potential SO would have to be pretty understanding, at least for a while...

davetong2• 15 years ago

If you're serious about your side-business, either quit your "normal" full-time job and ask family/friends/partner to support during the time you need to do what you're trying to do in order to have the best chance at success. Otherwise you risk wasting time, money, under-performing at your "normal" job, only performing mediocre at your side-business and putting strain on relationships with your loved ones because you are trying to do too much... If you don't want to risk it to take the biscuit, then question whether you believe in your idea as much as you think you do.

wtracy• 15 years ago

I have an idea that I suspect has a low probability of making any money (basically Chatroulette The Way it Should Have Been). I'm considering pursuing it anyway because it would give me the chance to get some hands-on experience with running a high-bandwidth web app (that probably will need clustering support) and it's interesting enough to look cool on my resume.

Unless some VC lands on my doorstep, I don't see any way to cover the server costs without holding on to my day job. (I hope advertising will offset some of the costs, but I won't count on that completely covering the costs, let alone keeping me fed.)

Does that answer your concern?

davetong2• 15 years ago

To me, it sounds like you're pitching a hobby rather than a start-up? If that's the case, I wouldn't recommend that you quit your day job.

wmboy• 15 years ago

It gets complicated the more things you want to be involved in. If you have no girlfriend/wife, no responsibilities, don't care what your few friends think of you and have no ambitions to add value to the world (other than through your startup) you can go hard, day or night.

For those of us who are married, have kids, do community work, go to Church (Sundays and weeknights) etc... we have a lot more to juggle and finding quality time is very difficult. You really need to put in at least 20 hours a week to have traction so it's a case of making time (and learning to live with less sleep). There's little to no room for procrastination for people in this boat.

Of course I'm not complaining - having a wife, family, helping the community and participating in a local church are great ways to add value with your life. It's all about priorities I guess...

I guess that's one of the reasons why successful startups are an anomaly.

Ask HN: What hours would you work on a side business?

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