Before we became “entrepreneurs” we were speech language pathologists each with our own successful practice. In 2012 we decided to try our hand at creating speech language apps and technology for students, but we needed to keep our practices open to pay the mortgage and the bills. In addition, we bootstrapped our new venture. Being entrepreneurs who juggle two jobs can work with some planning and tech tools.
Use a Shared Calendar
We thought creating our products for Communication APPtitude would be difficult, but doing all of that while managing our full-time speech language private practices became the next hurdle. We started by carving out time for each business. We created our own Google email addresses with our website and synced our calendars. Syncing calendars makes it easier to know when we can schedule appointments together and when the other is busy with their private practice. Having two co-founders in the same business (private practice) was helpful, because we respected the time slots each of us dedicated to our money-making job. We scheduled around our private practices and worked more efficiently at our new venture.
Technology Helps
We needed to find time to work on our technology business. Our schedules are not the same, so our overlapping free times are few. We don’t live in the same town, so conference calls are daily events for us, with each other and our business contacts. Our software developer introduced us to UberConference. Using our Google sign-ins, we can host and attend web conferences wherever we are from any device. We’ve each learned to switch gears throughout the day and manage two businesses.
Divide and Conquer
Having a business partner has been helpful in more ways than one. Your partner is your sounding board, your reality check and your better half all rolled into one. We work well together and have different strengths. Not attending every meeting together is helpful and saves time. For the important meetings we are both in attendance, but for the smaller stuff we divide and conquer. Each day brings new challenges, but that’s part of the adventure.
See also:
- Creating a Successful App Takes Time and Collaboration
- Why Intern-Powered Startups Are a Win-Win
- Chasing Renewals: When Your Buyers and Users Are Not the Same
*Image by Dreamstime
