How can I balance entrepreneurship (especially at startup) with needing to be financially sound?

Robert Fulghum wisely (or unwisely depending on perspective) said, "all I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten." Now before you take that as a low-blow towards higher education or secondary schooling let me explain. There are fundamental concepts of social interaction, mathematics, geometry, and science that can all be gathered from a play date. Hopefully these playground facts can help you discover that fundamentally you already have many of the tools you need to thrive.

Exhibit A-The Seesaw. The Seesaw requires that we understand that too much weight in any one area can weigh that area down even though other areas are seemingly up. It forces the 2 people using it to work to achieve a balance that keeps both sides at similar levels and at the very least both sides from scraping the ground. Consider one side of this Seesaw your finances and the other side your entrepreneurship. If the finance side started with just the weight of rent, utilities, car and insurance notes, and daily living costs and the entrepreneurship side balanced simply with basic communication costs and time investment, what happens when you add weight unequally?

At startup investment costs move from theoretical to realistic when those withdrawals happen to push weight over to the financial side. Potential profit may add weight to the entrepreneurship end but that may require time. In the meantime the light company doesn't accept potential for payment and the time away from your other financial means to pursue entrepreneurship gains adds further weight to the financial side of your Seesaw. The trick to Seesaw was to shift weight around until both sides could stay afloat. Sound familiar? Your need to be financially sound should not be neglected while you move all of your eggs to the entrepreneurship basket, similarly you cannot safeguard your finances so heavily that you can't add weight to your entrepreneurship end.

Consider where you place the weight of time, resources, finances, stress, agreements, and energy and make sure that when you make moves on your entrepreunership end you have shifted the weight in such a way that the financial end does not tip eerily close to the floor. While we sometimes like to treat our personal finances and entrepreneurship aims as two seperate entities, it is much wiser to consider their partnership and exchange. This "Seesaw" concept is even biblical if you think about it. Matthew 6:24 says "No one can serve two masters as he will hate the one and love the other." Don't spend so much time on one that you neglect the other because while you serve one with all of your heart (and finances) you can easily disregard the other and drive it straight into the ground.

Everything you needed to know about "balance" you learned when you probably weren't able to spend entrepreneurship yet. You got this.