Some start-ups rely on almost round the clock face time, but others--like Bolstr--find hanging out together less means getting more done.

If you're going to be basically sleeping under your desk to get your start-up off the ground, why not make things a little more comfortable and actually merge your place of business with your place of residence? At least you'll have a proper bed handy.

That's the thinking laid out by Victor Ho and Matt Dok, co-founders of business loyalty network FiveStars, recently. The pair came up with an elegant solution to the long hours demanded by starting their company: They cohabitated and then had early employees move in too.

"We locked ourselves in a room for three months straight, had ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and taught ourselves Python. We transformed our living room into a work space. We’d wake up, walk 20 feet down the hall, sit down at the table, not move except to eat, then go to bed," Ho tells Fast Company, claiming the unusual arrangements helped the team be more innovative and productive, save money and instill a horizontal, hierarchy-free culture.

But this approach isn't for everyone. Charlie Tribbett and Larry Baker, the founding team behind small business crowdfunding site Bolstr, at first tried something a slightly less extreme form of constant togetherness.

"When we first started working together we actually set up a fold out table and sat across from each other all day with our laptops," Tribbett told Inc. "We had just quit our jobs—structured, finance jobs. Unaccustomed working outside of an office, the fold-out table seemed like a good idea. And early on, it was. That works tyle helped us maintain focus. But over time it became a distraction."

The pair found that they were actually taking the homey vibe too far, becoming so companionable that they ended up simply hanging out when they should have been working.

"It became very easy to spend chunks of time chatting about things unrelated to Bolstr," says Tribbett. In response the pair decided on a trial separation, working remotely from their separate apartments, but that approach "led to some fragmentation. It became a little more difficult to iterate the broader strategy for the company and product. And projects that required collective collaboration became more challenging to knock out."

The solution for this team was a middle way. "We’ve found that 2-3 days a week in the same space lets us set the week’s agenda, talk strategy and whiteboard. We then prioritize, divide, and conquer the remainder of the week," says Tribbett.

But, argue some credible voices in the start-up community (including VC Mark Suster), doesn't working at a distance reduce opportunities for a team to build a culture of camaraderie and a basis for trust?

To which Tribbett responds: there's no reason you can't build company culture over chat and video. Some young startup teams create camaraderie, he says, by "staying up late and working hard together. This is actually true for us too—it’s just done through technology. We have an open chat called 'The Watercooler' where team members chat about anything. Sometimes work-related, sometimes not."

While the team believes a Bolstr HQ is in the company's future, at these early stages of the start-up the 24/7 work-life mash-up model just didn't pay dividends, concludes Tribbet, and he doubts he's alone in being unable to resist the lure of socializing.

"There are a lot of inefficiencies that are born out of the sexiness of start-ups. For the young startup in a coworking space, it takes discipline to not partake in every nerf fight or happy hour," he says. "For us, though, with flexibility comes responsibility. The luxury of working from wherever means high standards of accountability."

In your experience, could some start-up teams sometimes get more done by spending less time together?

A quick reader’s guide: The Icarus Deception, by Seth Godin

Seth Godin has built a name for himself as the go-to writer for marketing. His most recent books, however, have started tying the concept of marketing into the larger picture of entrepreneurship and The Icarus Deception follows that trend. The book offers insight into creative entrepreneurship in particular — how to sell things you make, from software to products that are a little more crafty.

It’s important to know that The Icarus Deception isn’t a technical book going in. It’s a business book with some seriously inspirational elements. But by the time you’ve finished reading it, you’ll be very motivated to get to work and you may have some new ideas on how to handle the business and marketing sides of your projects.

Development: Ditching responsive design
Lately, it’s seemed like an article of faith that any new website has to be designed so that it can easily adapt to multiple platforms. But responsive design may be more of a bandaid in certain situations — something that doesn’t fix the underlying issue. For some companies, it may actually make sense to ditch responsive design.

Funding: On Deck raises $42 million to finance cash-strapped small businesses
It can be tough to get a loan for a business, particularly if you need a smaller amount than your bank typically deals with or you need the money quickly. But On Deck is working to make sure that short-term loans are available for small businesses, a process made easier by the $42 million the company just raised for itself.

Operations: 6 reasons to use crowdsourcing
Have you been considering crowdsourcing, anything for establishing your company? These reasons may convince you to try out crowdsourcing some of the design work or research necessary to get you started, as Wild Creations did.

Marketing: A realist’s guide to marketing in 2013
Colin Nagy has put together a fast read on what marketing pitfalls are currently facing tech companies. The bottom line is that marketing is quickly evolving and you need to keep ahead of any problems in the pipeline.

Beyond Tech: Future Woman in Tech
This letter, from Stacey Mulcahy, to her eight-year-old niece, lays out the best possible world in which that girl could work in technology.

Our most popular link this week: A short guide to surveying your customer base

The No. 1 factor that prevents entrepreneurs from starting a new company or meeting goals is fear. Simple ways to check your fears at the door.

I interview entrepreneurs every week for my radio show. I also coach business owners over coffee and cheap bar food. The recurring theme across these conversations: overcoming fear.

We all have fears. But the good news is they're generally easy to overcome. Just look beyond them. Think it's easier said than done? Here are the common entrepreneurial fears I see and how to attack them:

Fear of Failing

This is the most obvious entrepreneurial fear: What if the business isn't successful? What if it doesn't work out? What if I end up living on the streets? The stats you hear about the likelihood of company failure would put this fear into any entrepreneur's mind. It's also the one you are most familiar with from the days of taking tests and turning in projects at school.

What to Do About It

Understand that every start-up is a failure at some point. If you look back on the original business plan, a company rarely, if ever, follows the plan as it was conceived. The difference between companies that succeed and those that fail is their ability to course correct. Make sure you pay attention to what's working and what's not, and continually work to capitalize on the positive.

Fear of Success

Believe it or not, success is some entrepreneurs' biggest fear. A hesitant salesperson is actually afraid that if he makes the sale, the company won't deliver on the promise he's made. Success brings the requirement to perform, to fulfill the obligation, and to manage scarce resources in an attempt to satisfy demands. Many companies fail because they simply can't service the demand, and their customers move on to a competitor.

What to Do About It

Find a fellow entrepreneur who is in a similar space. He or she has been there before and will have connections and advice to help you through. Look for resources you can borrow: an industrial kitchen if you are making a food product or a company's excess office space; or rent another company's equipment to get the job done.

Fear of Starting

One of my colleagues once gave me some great advice about getting started on a big task. She told me, "How do you eat an elephant?" The answer, "One bite a time." OK, it's a little creepy, but you get the point. Often we are so overwhelmed by the task ahead of us because it looks too big and daunting that we just don't start.

What to Do About It

It may sound simple, but just simply start! If you are going to write a book, write 350 words a day and you are writing about a page. If you are going to start a company in a space you have never been before, find a mentor or spend some time interning with a company you respect. Do something small today for the future you want tomorrow.

Fear of Loss

This fear grips entrepreneurs who have built something up and are afraid to make a change or go in a new direction. They are afraid that the new direction will put what they already built in jeopardy.

What to Do About It

Realize that the second you stop innovating your company, you are already slipping. There is no such thing as maintaining the status quo in the entrepreneurial or small-business space. If you think you are afraid of losing what you already have, then know that unless you take some risks, you are already headed down that path.

Entrepreneurs are a resilient breed. You know how to take a need, problem, or bad situation and capitalize on it to build something great. If you can remember that your entrepreneurial instincts make you more likely to succeed and to learn from a failure, you have nothing to fear.

Focusing on a smaller number of customers might actually fuel your growth instead of impeding it. Here are four ways to make it work.

Growing means expanding your business, right? That's what many entrepreneurs and CEOs assume they need to do. But, in almost every successful growth story we've seen, the CEO has done exactly the opposite.

In a recent article, Growing Like Gangbusters?, we discussed the three things that companies need to do to adapt their business as they grow. As they move from a start-up to an established company, they need to adapt their organization and leadership model. But, at the same time, growing companies need to find a way to create more value for their customers, and then scale that customer value.

Small entrepreneurial companies need to adapt to their customer needs, adjusting their business model accordingly to grow revenue. But once you've built a successful company, you've also likely built a reputation and distinctiveness around a specific product, service, or customer segment. CEOs who are able to sustain this growth actually get more narrow in their focus, which allows them to scale the business around that key strength.

The CEO of Rise Interactive, Jon Morris, recently told us, "We focus on doing one thing well: Helping companies drive traffic to their website."

Duncan Barbaro Sant, a director at Alberta, a 200 employee fire, safety, and security company based in Mriehel, Malta, shared his plan of action. "Rather than focusing on winning all the projects we come across and trying to spread our wings further than we possibly can, we have taken to choosing carefully the projects that make sense for us and that can sustain the company's healthy growth," Duncan told us. "This will give us the time to monitor and exploit all the projects we are being awarded/accepting whilst keeping our clients faithful to our company."

Here are four things CEOs can do to narrow their customer focus and create more growth:

1. Find your most profitable customers. Do some back-of-the-envelope math to rank order your customers in terms of high to low profits. The customers that pay more and cost less to serve are creating the most value for your business.

2. Understand the unique needs of your most valuable customers. How are they different from your less profitable customers? Identify the drivers of why they rise to the top.

3. Understand what you are doing for these customers that no one else can do as well. Determine your key strengths and the offerings that they find the most value in.

4. Ruthlessly prioritize and focus organizational resources and investment on these customers. Always choose projects and investment that favor your most profitable customers. Challenge yourself to free up time and resources to devote more to these customers.

Creating a narrower customer focus is somewhat counterintuitive to growth. But when it's done right, this approach typically results in more growth rather than less.

Send us your experiences with focusing on your core customers. We can be reached at karlandbill@avondalestrategicpartners.com.

If you find yourself putting things off, the culprit may be a weak sense of identity rather than a weak will.

When you put off tasks that are important for the betterment of your business, do you beat yourself up for having a weak will?

It may feel like your inability to push yourself to do the unpleasant but unnecessary is to blame when you procrastinate, but psychology suggests there actually may be another culprit: your identity… or lack thereof.

Timothy A. Pychyl, a professor of psychology at Canada's Carleton University, has written on Psychology Today, that identity is "knowledge of who we are. Knowledge that is hard won through a real 'exploration' of possible selves (perhaps those crazy teen years or campus life in your 20's) and finally crystallized with a 'commitment.'"

What does identity have to do with procrastination? According to research done by one of Pychyl's grad students Matthew Shanahan having a less firm sense of the one leads to more of the other.

"Ego identity development was negatively correlated with procrastination. That means, the more achieved the identity, the more the participants knew who they were, the lower their scores on the measures of procrastination," Pychyl explains.

The moral of the story for Pychyl is that "we all have to 'grow up' a bit to decrease our procrastination." That's good news for frustrated parents of teens and deadline-challenged college students, but what does that have to do with business owners? You are, after all, not some teenager currently experimenting with a new goth look or vegan diet.

But while your fundamental identity as a person in general may long since have been sealed, if you're relatively new to entrepreneurship, your sense of yourself as a genuine business owner could still be tentative. When embarking on a new career path, it's common to feel like you're somehow faking it—that you don't really have the right to the identity you're claiming.

This discomfort with your new identity, at least in mild doses, isn't something to worry about, according to the New York Times, but it just might make you more prone to procrastination. The good news: as you get more comfortable with your identity and commit fully to seeing yourself as a business owner, your tendency to put things off should fade.

Conclusion: it's time to start believing in your identity as a business owner.

Does this connection between identity and procrastination make intuitive sense to you?