3 ms·

So, I'd love to start with this. The hardest part for me is finding the time and motivation to start with in addition to my current employment. Because I also l

So, I'd love to start with this. The hardest part for me is finding the time and motivation to start with in addition to my current employment. Because I also like my spare time. And it seems as though in order to gain more spare time I have to put a lot of my spare time in as an investment with the (likely?) risk of not receiving any extra in return.

jasonkester 9y ago
I fought with this for a long time, back when I was working full time and trying to get things bootstrapped. What worked for me was not trying to force it. Rather than set aside and extra couple hours in the morning or after work as "product building time", I'd just let it happen on its own. I work in bursts, so I'd get a bug up one evening, get up off the couch and run with an idea for a few hours. If I didn't finish, and I was still excited about the idea, I'd do the same thing the next night. I'd sometimes get on a roll and do this for a couple weeks on end. But other times, I'd run out of steam and just let it go. The cool thing about SaaS businesses is that a lot of things run on "Calendar Time". So once the initial thing is out the door, you can weather a lot of unmotivation (or screwing off) while your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are doing their thing behind the scenes. I took a long term full-time contract at one point when my first kid was born, and still somehow managed to burst out new features this way in between changing diapers. There are a lot of hours in the day, most of which go in to "down time". Don't sweat it too much, and know that you can steal that down time to use when you're motivated.
- Nashooo 9y ago
  Thank you for this answer! > your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are doing their thing behind the scenes. However, I imagine this takes some more work/skill to really pull off than just letting it do it's thing.

jasonkester 9y ago

I fought with this for a long time, back when I was working full time and trying to get things bootstrapped. What worked for me was not trying to force it. Rather than set aside and extra couple hours in the morning or after work as "product building time", I'd just let it happen on its own. I work in bursts, so I'd get a bug up one evening, get up off the couch and run with an idea for a few hours. If I didn't finish, and I was still excited about the idea, I'd do the same thing the next night. I'd sometimes get on a roll and do this for a couple weeks on end. But other times, I'd run out of steam and just let it go. The cool thing about SaaS businesses is that a lot of things run on "Calendar Time". So once the initial thing is out the door, you can weather a lot of unmotivation (or screwing off) while your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are doing their thing behind the scenes. I took a long term full-time contract at one point when my first kid was born, and still somehow managed to burst out new features this way in between changing diapers. There are a lot of hours in the day, most of which go in to "down time". Don't sweat it too much, and know that you can steal that down time to use when you're motivated.

Nashooo 9y ago
Thank you for this answer! > your SEO, ads, and word-of-mouth are doing their thing behind the scenes. However, I imagine this takes some more work/skill to really pull off than just letting it do it's thing.