January 28, 2013

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In February 2012, my wife mentioned something to me right before I walked out the door to go to work.

“Joe, I feel like you’re going to work, the place — but you’re not doing good work, the noun,” she said.

“Wow,” I thought to myself. Well, if you do not have respect from your ace of a wife, what do you have, right?

I gave my two-week notice to my employer that same afternoon.

There is No Such Thing as the “Perfect Time” 

After leaving a company I had been with for six years, I started a strategic consulting practice from “scratch to thriving” — which started with me convincing CEO’s to hire me, somewhat of a strategy cowboy who likes to wear jeans and be home for dinner. Then, I actually had to do the work — grow their businesses and push their management to be excellent and come alive in their own day jobs.

In addition to running a full-time consulting practice, I also spent thousands of hours creating my latest startup.

I obtained funding and built You Need My Guy from idea to launch. Then I flew to NYC to pitch the board of KAYWEB Angels, an angel investment group based in New York City, and beat out hundreds of competitors to reach a deal.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that during this time I bought and sold two houses and my wife and I had a baby which added to my 2-year-old twins; now we were raising three kids under 3 years of age.

Understandably the question that I am asked all the time is, “Joe, how do you do it?”

Most people say they will wait until “later” to do something new and risky, but I promise you–there will never be a “perfect time.” You will always wish you had more money in the bank, more experience, or more nights of solid sleep without waking up to change diapers.

How to Start a Business and Manage your Busy Life

So here are five things to remember when you decide to start a business while managing a family and a full-time job:

1. Be careful — to an extent.

Take caution in multiple ways if you are starting a business in this type of situation. For instance, don’t spend your last $1,000 on your new website — you are married with kids now, and they come first. There, I said it.

If you take care of your family, you will find yourself becoming a better entrepreneur and leader. Also, make sure you are not breaking your employment agreement by taking on a side project. For some reason, those pesky bosses want you spending time on their work during the day, and getting fired for writing a business plan at your desk would not be awesome!

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