Mark your distributor housing with where the rotor needs to be to be spot on for #1.
Turn the balancer to 0°.
Check to see if the #1 valves are closed. If not, rotate the crank once and line the balancer up to 0° again. You're at TDC #1.
Check your oil pump driveshaft and make sure it's close to where it needs to be when you stab the distributor.
Stab the distributor so the rotor settles right onto your mark on the housing. You're at 0° on #1.
If the distributor doesn't sit all the way down, you've likely missed the slot in the oil pump driveshaft. Pull the distributor out, check the shaft, and re-stab.
The engine should start up just fine with 0° timing, and it's a quick and easy way to get it running. Do your initial break-in, check for leaks, etc.
Once you have it running solid, set the timing where you want it. Put a vacuum gauge on it and adjust the timing for the highest vacuum.
From there you'd likely need a dyno to realize more gains, but somebody else probably has more insight.