Start, Love, Repeat: How to Stay in Love with Your Entrepreneur in a Crazy Start-up World

by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun

Overview

A prescriptive guide to how to keep your relationship strong when there's a start-up in the family.

The idea of starting your own business is exhilarating and inspiring. It's one over 30 million Americans pursue. But being the significant other of an entrepreneur is not so glamorous. Boundaries between work and home disappear. Personal savings and business funds become intertwined. You can feel like a single parent as your spouse travels, works late hours, and answers calls and e-mails 24-7.You may even sacrifice a career or move your home for the sake of the business.

But there are strategies you can use to combat all this stress and uncertainty. Whether you're new to the start-up world, or a long-term entrepreneurial partner, Start, Love, Repeat will help you understand exactly how a start-up affects your lives-and what you can do to build a happy and healthy relationship in the midst of the madness. Dorcas Cheng-Tozun has not only done extensive research, she has lived through the perils and pitfalls of being with an entrepreneur as the wife of the CEO and cofounder of successful start-up d.light. She offers clear-sighted, first-hand advice for any couple considering making the same leap. She further draws on interviews with other successful entrepreneurs and their significant others, executive coaches, marriage-family therapists, venture capitalists, and start-up authorities to provide practical insights and steps any couple can take to build a strong relationship while launching that dream business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478920748
Publisher:	Center Street
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is an award-winning writer, editor, and speaker. As a columnist for Inc.com, she writes about the intersection of startup love with marriage, family, and well-being. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, BlogHer, the Unreasonable Institute blog, the Entrepreneurial Leader, and dozens of other publications in the U.S. and Asia. Dorcas and her entrepreneur husband, d.light co-founder Ned Tozun, have been married for twelve years and have one adorable hapa son.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xiii

Part I Market Research 1

Chapter 1 Meet the Entrepreneur 3

Chapter 2 Meet the Start-up 17

Chapter 3 The Entrepreneurial Life 32

Chapter 4 The Entrepreneurial Relationship 47

Part II Due Diligence 63

Chapter 5 Knowing Yourself and Your Partner 65

Chapter 6 Knowing Your Relationship 80

Chapter 7 Knowing Your Priorities 95

Chapter 8 Knowing Your Role 111

Part III Strategic Planning 125

Chapter 9 Developing Trust 127

Chapter 10 Maintaining Communication 141

Chapter 11 Setting Boundaries 155

Chapter 12 Staying Intimate 171

Part IV Building a Team 185

Chapter 13 Investing in Yourself 187

Chapter 14 Asking for Help 200

Chapter 15 Getting Involved-or Not 214

Part V Scaling Up 229

Chapter 16 Establishing Goals and Deadlines 231

Chapter 17 Sustaining the Entrepreneurial Life Together 245

Chapter 18 Growing with Your Entrepreneur 258

Part VI Exit 271

Chapter 19 Surviving Failure 273

Chapter 20 Surviving Success 287

Conclusion 301

Acknowledgments 309

Endnotes 311

Editorial Reviews

This is a practical, loving, balanced, clear, complete and real guide to living with an entrepreneur. Dorcas has included a sensitive balance between personal experience, applied examples, and research-based concepts. Her authentic vulnerability is both touching and helpful. There is wisdom and depth in every chapter.—Dave Phillips, Leadership Mentor and Speaker

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun has written an astute, pragmatic marriage book that will quickly become the go-to manual for entrepreneurial couples across the globe. Start, Love, Repeat paves a clear path through the unpredictable labyrinth of start-up life allowing husbands and wives to a find their way to healthy, satisfying marriages.
—Dorothy Littell Greco, writer, photographer, and author of Making Marriage Beautiful

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun has written a real-life exploration of the deep importance of sustained relationships to entrepreneurs and their families. As a longtime investor, I've been an adviser to numerous founders who have faced trade-offs in their personal and professional lives. Start, Love, Repeat provides insightful, engaging, and practical advice for those who want to "win" in life and at work.—Eric Kim, cofounder and managing partner of Goodwater Capital

Start, Love, Repeat should be required reading! This guide, and the unique guidance Dorcas provides throughout, is a godsend for entrepreneurial couples and families.—Jessica Jackley, instructor in social entrepreneurship at USC Marshall School of Business and cofounder of Kiva

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun has provided a powerful and practical resource for any entrepreneur and their family. I recommend this to any entrepreneur who has ever struggled with balancing their work and spending time with those they love.
—Daniel Epstein, founder and CEO of Unreasonable

Start, Love, Repeat is rich in data, actionable advice and insights, inspiring stories, and raw, honest, relatable anecdotes that validate just how intense and demanding the founder's journey inevitably is. Dorcas does a wonderful job weaving an entertaining, dramatic narrative together with helpful advice and eye-opening research and quotations from across the venture spectrum. If you're hurdling down the entrepreneurial path or just along for the ride, you will benefit greatly from reading this book.—Andrea Miller, founder and CEO of YourTango; author of Radical Acceptance: The Secret to Happy, Lasting Love

While all couples are challenged with how to balance their work and relationship, Dorcas does an amazing job of guiding them through understanding relational skills that transform their challenge into mutual growth and career success.—Harville Hendrix, Ph. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph. D, authors of Getting the Love You Want and Making Marriage Simple

From the Publisher