Nooks and Crannies
Google “Bootstrapping a startup”. Go ahead, do it, we’ll wait.
Yes, we could’ve provided a link, but this is mostly just a literary device, so that’d defeat the point. And besides, you learn by doing.
Back? Good. So you see, it’s a pretty common process — many have tried it, many have failed, some have succeeded, many have gone quietly mad, others quite vocally so. Staring a business with little — or no — money. And in many cases, no time. Which brings us to our point: doing a startup while holding down a day job.
It’s about the rules. One must not mix and match; doing startup work on company time is a hanging offense. Thinking too hard about it during work is grounds for a decent lashing (unless it’s one’s lunch hour).
One must structure one’s time militantly. And if that means that the evening hours of 8-12 (or, more likely, 8-2) are allocated to the startup each Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and… well… Monday… and Wednesday and Friday, and usually Saturday… well, that’s how it has to be. (And if there’s a new season of television starting — well, time to invest in some more hard drive space for Myth!) Having a supportive and understanding spouse — assuming one has a spouse — is, hence, absolutely vital, since chances are you won’t be seeing quite as much of them for a while. We make a point of not working — much — during the day on weekends, so as not to lose the plot completely.
But time’s not the only thing that needs to be divided. Computers are an obvious one, and email accounts. Misappropriation of company resources: stoneable offense (no, the other kind of stoned). Story time. We had a (curiously unproductive) coworker some years ago who, it turned out, had been spending most of each day creating a web-based business right from his office. His startup’s official phone number was his office phone. I believe he may have been the first and only person ever fired from that company. No, we didn’t stone him. C’mon, obviously he was a complete loon — there are laws against stoning loons. But I do notice that areaflorist.com no longer exists.
This all leaves the stickiest subject, though: you. You see, your current employer owns you. Varies by state, of course. First, one must look long and hard and to see if there are any conflicts of interest. If so, you’ve gotta tell your superiors, now; the alternative could be nasty, and could easily sink your dreams. (We’m assuming you’re going to be careful not to actually misappropriate any of your current employer’s technology; otherwise, please stop reading this and go read, I don’t know, Slashdot or something until you grow up). But worse, your company probably has rights to what you do in your free time, and even some rights to restrict what you’re allowed to do after you stop working for them. Those non-compete and employment agreements you signed, remember? Yeah, nasty. The best thing to do is to write a (reasonable but thorough) amendment to those agreements providing exceptions for what you’re working on (or better, get your lawyer to do so, if you have a lawyer yet; they’re good at this legal stuff). And get it signed. I know, doesn’t sound like fun — but if you’re not up for that, you’re really not up for creating a successful company from scratch, are you?
At some point amidst all these rules and details, note that one must also find time to actually concentrate on starting a company.
(Alternate title: “Crooks and Nannies: how to bootstrap a startup without stealing your employer’s code or failing to raise your children yourself”)