The Startup Spouses

Most entrepreneurs face  decisions about systems and thinks about how he/she will communicate, track, plan, manage, and budget for his/her company. When is it appropriate to invest the time and potential money into getting “set up”, so to speak? There is no magical formula that I’m aware of (did I mention that I’m not an MBA-type?), but what follows is our experience and some criteria that resulted.

I spent some time upfront, probably due to some deep personality flaw, exploring options for different tools to use to support our efforts. Having had some experience with Microsoft Project, I chose to stay away from such a clunky application. Besides, it has way more functionality than we need. I considered Basecamp, but ultimately that too seemed to be overkill on a small startup project spearheaded by two people. Ultimately, we decided on using Google docs to collect, collaborate on, and track competitive research, meeting notes, designs we like, and any brainstorming. We also use Outlook for its calendar function. I actually use the Mac version of Outlook which is called Entourage, and has a neat little feature called the Project Center. It has very basic project management functionality; you can set up tasks with notes and invite collaborators. The deadlines appear in your Outlook calendar. We decided this was all the project functionality we needed given that we have short-term (four months), manageable milestones, so it worked nicely.

If I had to give advice to others as to what to consider when thinking about systems to use, I would recommend the following criteria:

• Effort. Will implementing a particular system improve efficiency, or will it take you more effort to research, setup, and update than it actually saves? One of my complaints of project management tools has been that I find that updating projects is time-consuming, and I often don’t make use of the plan when actually doing the work, so the effort is not well-spent.

• Peace of Mind. Does having the system in place make you feel more comfortable, confident, even legitimate? Well, then maybe a few hours researching will be well-spent if you can take yourself more seriously afterwards. It’s like getting new workout clothes before starting a new exercise regimen; they aren’t necessary, but can sometimes provide great motivation. Just be aware of how much time you spend trying to feel more like your own boss, rather than actually doing work.

• Scope and Scalability. Depending on the nature of your business, it might make perfect sense to invest a lot of time upfront thinking about systems, either because your business plan is large in scope or because you need to be able to accommodate rapid growth. Both scenarios require good organization and infrastructure to be most successful.