Solo founders: How do you allocate your time?

Question

Hi fellow founders!

I was wondering how solo founders allocate their time between product, marketing, sales, and support?

And also, am I the only one who has that little voice in her head when I work on one of those saying "you should focus on the other 3 instead of this one?"

Kai Oelfke · Accepted Answer

I struggle with this as well.

It's not always 100% clear, which would move the needle the most. I try to focus on 1-2 things only per day. If I don't have much time it's just one thing.

I think it's good to keep track of your time. So that you can balance the things. Some people just code and never do marketing. And some maybe do analytics and marketing forever to get complete validation instead of shipping and learning from it.

So I think it always depends and balance is good!

Andrea Paci · Answer

Every solo founder struggles with this almost every time.

Whenever possible I prefer to follow a certain "design / code / marketing or sales / support" sequence but this is not always the case and more often you have to manage 2 or 3 different tasks.

The solution is, as Piotr Gaczkowski said, surround yourself with a team. It is useful not only to separate tasks, but also to share knowledge and opinions.

Piotr Gaczkowski · Answer

This is very hard for me as well. I suck at prioritization so whatever I choose, I soon start to think maybe the alternative choice would be better.

My approach is to surround myself with mentors, advisors, consultants, or my mastermind group so I am not alone. Since I'm not the only person taking the decision, it is then easier for me to accept it.

I know this might not work for you, but so far, I haven't found abything better.

BTW: have you considered looking for a co-founder?

Olzhas B · Answer

I agree with @kaioelfke, for me it's 1-2 things a day max.

Usually there's a pre-determined sequence, e.g. "design – code – marketing", so it isn't that hard to pick what to work on next.

Hope it helps!

Caroline Chiari · Answer

@kaioelfke @ooolzhas makes sense, working on 2/3 of your tasks at once makes it easier.

Marie Malikova · Answer

Time tracking applications can help you with appropriate time allocation and control. I advise taking a look at this app - https://www.capterra.com/p/148624/TMetric/

Ann · Answer

What about setting a weekly ritual? For instance:
- Monday to be your marketing day, so you focus on creating marketing contents on social media, write blog articles, etc.
- Tuesday to be your sales day, so you know on this day you should reach out to XXX potential customers, make XXX demos, etc. 
-and so on.

Of course, you don't have to only do that topic on that specific day, but it should be the focus of your day. In this way, you won't feel guilty of not doing the other things, because you know you already plan the time to do them properly. :)

Piotr Gaczkowski · Answer

@caroline_chiari yes, finding people who are compatible is hard. I think they need to be excited about what you do first, even before you ask them to join. If it's your responsibility to explain everything, it might not really be worth it.

Caroline Chiari · Answer

@doomhammer That's a good suggestion!

Yes, I have looked for co-founders. I asked two people, they started, and then nothing after a day or two. I guess they were just not motivated enough. I'm not opposed to a co-founder, I just haven't found the right fit yet.

Amy Tang · Answer

I struggle with this every day! I have a travel tech company creating tailored travel guides (remember when we used to travel?). I'll break up my workload into 4 buckets: operations (serve existing users), marketing (get new users), funding (get money), recruiting (build a team). I spend almost all of my time on operations and marketing, and will make time for recruiting and fundraising when the opportunity presents itself. This is my personal strategy because I think a captive user base will make it much easier to raise money and build a team. Many founders have the opposite approach, trying to get a small team together to raise money first, so they can build and grow faster. I think marketing your product to users and marketing your company to investors and potential team members are very different things, so I find trying to both at the same time very difficult.

Solo founders: How do you allocate your time?

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