Isolation Not Always The Entrepreneurs Best Friend

Running a small business can be a lonely trek.

Isolation can be a challenge for new business owners working alone. This can come as a shock to anyone who gives up their day job to run their own business. Isolation can be powerful enough to send some early-stage owners scurrying back to work for someone else.

Here are a few suggestions for dealing with isolation:

1. Write your goals and post them in a visible location in your work area. Annual sales targets are wonderful and necessary, but too broad to be useful on a daily basis. To gain maximum motivation, break your long-term targets into weekly or daily goals.

2. Foster a healthy sense of urgency. Cultivate a bias for getting things done. Ask yourself, “What am I doing right now to move me closer to achieving my goals.” Most of us can achieve much more than we think we can by adopting a “do-it-now” attitude.

3. Establish a support network. It’s healthy to interact with positive, supportive people. Your support team can be arranged formally, or be completely unstructured. My support network is an eclectic assortment of special souls that I occasionally have coffee or lunch with. To battle isolation, try having at least one power-lunch or meeting per week.

4. Make your customers your number one focus. You are not really in business until you are serving customers. If you’re short of customers, get busy marketing to bring in more customers. More time invested in your customers will leave less time to be idle, and less time to dwell on isolation.

5. Get a part-time job. Seriously. I have not yet owned a business that was able to support me during its infancy. Many thriving businesses get their foothold while the owner works for someone else. A full or part-time job can help you bring in some needed cash, as well as providing the human contact that might be missing from your business life. Besides, working for someone else might just remind you why you started your business in the first place. Dancing to someone else’s tune for a time may be the nudge needed to rekindle your passion to be your own boss.

In spite of the downside, isolation has its benefits. If you’re the sort of person who thrives on freedom, the autonomous workspace is more likely a welcome friend than a downer. If you enjoy independence and prefer to work without someone looking over your shoulder, small business ownership might be ideal for you. n