12. Outsource as much as possible. One of the beauties of online marketplaces such as elance.com, odesk.com, and ExpertBids.com is that they give you access to a wide array of professional service providers and costs. Some of the quotes you get will be relatively cheap. That said, the cheap quote is not always the right person for the job. You might also try swapping skills. As a practicing lawyer, I helped one of my initial developers set up an LLC and looked over a few contracts and he paid me back with a significantly lower bill for the work he did. – Nick Cronin, founder of Chicago-based ExpertBids.com.
13. Untangle yourself from other responsibilities. This is not the time to coach Little League. Hopefully that will come later in life but it can't happen right now. – Kirk Simpson, cofounder and CEO of Wave Accounting.
14. Get your family involved. Have them use the product you're making. When they see it and feel it, they tend to understand more about what it takes to deliver it. –Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, a visual voice-mail smartphone app.
15. Communicate constantly with your spouse. Then you will know how to best support each other. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, says the biggest decision you'll make in your career is who you decide to marry. I think this has really been true for me. Start-ups are not just physically challenging but also emotionally challenging, with amazing highs and equally strong lows. Having a spouse that you know is in your corner is a huge source of comfort and confidence. – Anishiya Taneja, founder and CEO of TravelDNA, a travel planning site.
16. Be there for your family when it's most important to them. I have two-year-old twins. At this age, it is important for my kids to spend time with their dad each day. So I make sure I do so before their bed time. This will morph into attending their soccer games as they grow bigger. – Navin Bathija, founder and CEO of Silicon Valley start up Neo, which provides auto loans to America's youth.
17. Schedule time with family and friends and stick to it. It creates a deadline that forces you to prioritize your work. – Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, a visual voice-mail smartphone app.
18. Take a vacation before you start your next challenge. Take two years off, surf all over South America, and come back tan, rested, and ready. That's what I did and I've been on fire! – Ryan Teixeira, one of the founders of UB3Rfun, a maker of iPhone docks.
19. Be friends with people you work with. I don't believe in creating a wall between work and life. Hire your friends and enjoy your work. It’s proven to work for me. –Joel Simkhai, CEO of the social networks Grindr and Blendr.
20. Be as organized as possible. This is one of the many things that people forget when launching a business, but it leads to a much more efficient and productive day. For example, I manage over 30 different e-mail accounts, which you’d think would be a big draw on time. One tool I use is Thunderbird by Mozilla which is one of the easiest tools for managing more than one e-mail account.” – Rick Singer, founder and CEO of GreatApps.com, an online media platform that focuses on app marketing and consumer use of apps.
21. Be schedule driven. If someone has not scheduled a meeting with me in advance, including my daughter, it won't happen. We text each other using a free texting program called Jaxtr that I hope will allow me to soon phase out AT&T texting (I'd save $360 a year!). I also use Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar. At mADtivity we also use a SmartSheet for scheduling, timelines, and project management.” –Stan Weitzman, CEO of mobile ad network mADtivity.
22. Get a different job. It is very difficult to maintain a balanced life with a tech start-up, as it becomes a very demanding mistress, one to whom you quickly become ‘married.’ I always carry at least an iPad and an iPhone with me, and most of the time a MacBook Pro too. So, I am always connected and there is always more work to be done. I think this is one of the reasons that start-ups generally favor young, 20-something entrepreneurs as they generally don’t have a spouse, kids, or other complications and obligations. They are free to be unbalanced.” – Rich Rygg, cofounder and Chief Product Guy for HipGeo, a social platform that lets people to share what they do and where they go using smart phones.
