The Coterie Playbook: Running multiple businesses without burning out.

Who this is for & when to use it

This playbook is for founders who already have at least one working business and are either running—or seriously tempted to run—several at once. You might have a services arm, a software product, a content project, and a physical or lifestyle brand (like Jukebox Beer).

If you're still trying to prove that any single idea works, start there first. This is about portfolio management and operating rhythm, not avoiding commitment.

Mental model

Think of your projects as a portfolio, not a pile. Each one should have:

• A clear role (cash‑flow, growth, experiment, or asset).
• Minimum acceptable performance (time, money, energy).
• Explicit review checkpoints where you decide to double down, keep, or kill.

The operating system is simply how you review and act on those signals week after week.

Step‑by‑step process

1. Map your current portfolio

Start with a brutally honest list of everything you're running or feel responsible for: client work, products, content, brands, experiments. For each, note:

• Monthly revenue (range is fine).
• Monthly hours you actually spend.
• Energy impact: does it drain or energize you?
• Its primary role: cash‑flow, growth, experiment, or asset.

2. Decide how many “active” projects you can truly run

Very few founders can actively push more than 2–3 meaningful things forward at once. Everything else needs to be:

• On autopilot with minimal maintenance.
• Paused with a clear "do not touch" note.
• Shut down cleanly.

Use your portfolio map to choose which projects are truly active for the next 3–6 months. The rest can't pretend to be.

3. Set weekly focus and capacity

Allocate real hours, not vibes. For example:

• Project A (cash‑flow): 40–50% of your week.
• Project B (growth): 30–40%.
• Project C (experiment like Jukebox): 10–20%.

Design your calendar to match this: fixed blocks per project, not constant context switching. The offshore team and your location choices (see the location‑independent playbook) should support this, not fight it.

4. Install a weekly and monthly review

Once a week, review for each active project:

• What moved? (shipments, revenue, key metrics)
• What got stuck? (blocks, decisions, constraints)
• What will move next week? (1–3 concrete commitments)

Once a month, step back and ask:

• Is this project still earning its place in the portfolio?
• Should its role change (cash‑flow → asset, experiment → main)?
• Is it time to pause or kill something?

Delegation & offshore leverage

Multi‑project founders almost always under‑delegate. Your offshore team (see the offshore hiring playbook) should be part of how you keep multiple projects moving:

• Assign whole features or areas, not scattered tasks.
• Let them own maintenance and small improvements on stable products.
• Use them to “harvest” ideas from experiments into reusable systems.

The stories in the Offshore Development Team and Jukebox Beer articles show how this plays out in practice.

Common failure modes & how to avoid them

• Everything is “priority one”. If every project is urgent, none are. Cap active projects and commit per 3–6 month season.
• No kill switch. Projects linger long after it's clear they aren't working. Decide in advance what failure looks like.
• Hiding in the fun work. The beer brand, the shiny new product, the exciting experiment will always feel better than boring but necessary cash‑flow work. Schedule the boring work first.

Next actions (7‑day plan)

1. Map your current portfolio with revenue, time, and energy for each project.
2. Choose which 2–3 projects are truly active for the next 3–6 months.
3. Block your calendar to reflect that choice—by project, not by task list.
4. Identify at least one thing you can kill, pause, or delegate this week.

As your projects evolve, revisit this playbook alongside the Saigon and Jukebox stories to keep your operating system grounded in reality, not theory.