How do you take time off as a solo bootstrapper?
i am wondering how solo bootstrappers without any employees take time off and disconnect. is it possible? how do you make it happen? who handles software going down or angry customers? can you completely disconnect?
I suppose for customers I can tell them I am away for a week but if the service stops working; I'd like to bring it back.
It's easy:
Check emails only twice a day, once when you wake up, and again when you go to bed. For the rest of the day, live your life without a care in the world. I find that you recharge best when you have a long, uninterrupted stretch of time where you can focus 100% on the present.
Turn off all push notifications for your email. Push notifications are disgusting, they're like alarm clocks that other people set for you. It leads to added stress and anxiety.
Just remember, nothing is that urgent. Even if your whole site is down, it's not that urgent. Your customers (like your boss) have a way of inflating minutiae to make it seem more important than it is. Your business is supposed to serve you, not the other way round. It's okay to let the emails sit for a while -- you won't lose MRR, let alone close shop, just because you wait a few hours before you respond. Your mental health always takes precedence.
Try to build products where your customers have typical office hours. My server graphs are a desolate wasteland from Friday-Sunday. I schedule most of my downtime then. Sometimes I even wake up with 0 customer support emails.
I've never tried this one, but support is outsourceable to some extent to a support forum. Your most passionate users can help out on your behalf if users have any questions, etc. Downside, however, is that now they can compare notes with each other, leading to unintended consequences, e.g. your grandfathered customers might brag about how they're paying a lower rate, leading to your new customers to demand the same.
For many of the us the answer is: You don't. You've snuck up on one of the big downsides of solo bootstrapping.
I hired an executive assistant last year, which allows me to occasionally take half-days off. And even then, there's a bit of baseline anxiety.
I think baseline anxiety is unavoidable.
I don't think it's even exclusive to solopreneurs.
CEOs of funded startups have baseline anxiety -- hell, normal employees have baseline anxiety.
I am currently an employee at a startup and I can concur that the baseline anxiety exists but I am certain that I can "disconnect" a lot more than my CEO can. Wonder how a solopreneur compares to a CEO with a team when it comes to baseline anxiety.
do you try to take long breaks between projects if you sell your current project?
i wonder if a duo could lead to a healthier business where my partner takes over support while i am out.
You don't. BUT, you can reduce the burden by paying someone to keep the lights on. eg. most IaaS provide support - pay for it. If you have mobile apps that don't rely on the cloud then you are set and can delay answering support questions without much impact since the app should run mostly fine. Good luck!
How deep does the support go by these IaaS providers? Do they try to restart the app or do they have engineers going in and debug what is actually wrong?
I'm not solo, but still almost never disconnect. It's part of the journey and it's grueling 🔥
solution: you dont XD
It is possible with proper planning. You can set up automated systems and fail-safes to handle potential issues with your software or service when you're away.
For customer complaints, consider leveraging outsourced customer support services or a ticketing system, allowing you to address them async.
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