SOHO, Solo, So Lonely
By Dan Boudreau
Running a business from home can be lonely. This is a theme for single owner home office (SOHO) entrepreneurs.
Isolation is one of the biggest challenges facing the small, home-based business owner. Those who dump their “day jobs” and start their own business usually overlook the reality of this force.
When working for or with others, we benefit from input, direction and encouragement of the boss or supervisor. We also derive momentum and support from co-workers. When we work alone we are responsible and accountable to keep ourselves motivated and productive. This challenge can be daunting enough to send the aspiring entrepreneur scampering from the confines of the home office back to work for someone else.
There are benefits to operating a business from your home. A home office can be attractive because it is inexpensive and easy to set up. It can also offer a lot of freedom in terms of the amount of time and hours worked. There are a few downsides to operating from the comfort of home. The SOHO operator can fall prey to all the seductive comforts and distractions of home life. If you live with your family, you may be easily lured into ever-pressing family matters while your work goes wanting.
Here are some ideas to help deal with isolation, to keep yourself motivated, and enable you to focus on achieving your business goals.
1. Clarify your purpose for being in business.
At the core of any business start-up there has to be a passion. What is your passion? Why are you in business? Write out your purpose and post it in a visible location, where you will be reminded of it each day.
2. Write out 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 day to day basis. In order to garner maximum motivation annual sales targets must be broken down into weekly and daily bites. Ask yourself this question, “What must I achieve today to move me closer to my goal?”
3. Nurture a sense of healthy urgency.
Cultivate a bias for getting things done. At any time, it is helpful to ask yourself “What am I doing right now to move me closer to achieving my goals and realizing my dreams.” Most of us can achieve a lot more than we think we can by adopting a “do-it-now” attitude.
4. “What’s in it for me?”
Use an image that fuels your fire. Understand that your most motivating image may not be sales for your business. For example, your goal is to own a $10,000 boat and each sale enables you to contribute $100 dollars toward the purchase of your boat. The image of a boat might be far stronger and more motivating for you.
5. Establish your very own support team.
It is very healthy to interact with positive people who are supportive toward your goals. In some cases support teams are formal arrangements like success teams. They can also be less structured, comprised of a number of individuals you know personally and/or get together with separately. To battle isolation, try having at least one power-lunch or meeting per week. Visit with someone who cares about your success and who will provide you with positive support.
6. Hitch a ride on your biorhythms.
Some people are most productive during mornings while others don’t join the living until at least 10pm. I find that I am most productive between 5am and 11am. Know your own primetime and arrange your work life around it. In business we have a number of responsibilities, some which demand our alertness and others which do not. Align your more demanding tasks with those times in the day when you have higher energy.
7. Use affirmations.
Affirmations are positive statements written in the present tense to get and keep ourselves on a path. For example, here is an affirmation for achieving sales targets. “I make ten calls to potential customers today. I contact each valuable customer with an attitude of service. I approach each customer knowing that he or she will be glad they spoke to me today.”
8. Make your customers your number one focus.
You are not really in business until you are serving customers. Focusing on your customers leaves less time to feel sorry for yourself, less time to be idle.
9. Nurture yourself, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Read healthy books and articles. Feed your body and mind healthy foods. Exercise regularly and get enough sleep. It works.
10. Get a job.
I’m serious. I’m not suggesting you stop doing your business. I have not yet owned a business that was able to support me, financially or emotionally, in its infancy. There is nothing written anywhere that prohibits a mix of business ownership and working for someone else. Many thriving businesses, including my own, got their foothold while the owner worked for someone else. A full or part-time job will enable you to achieve a few things. It will bring in some much-needed money to help make ends meet. It will provide you with the human interaction and motivation that can be missing in home-based business life. It will remind you why you started your business in the first place and motivate you to either get in or to get out of the business. Either way it will help to get things on track.
There’s nothing quite as effective as a commitment to a customer to defeat isolation. It is similar to the effect of planning and hosting a party. Have you ever had the experience of setting a date for a party, then observing in amazement while all those niggling projects you’ve procrastinated about somehow get completed? If you’ve been meaning to clean up the family room or tidy up that stack of books in the corner… the party becomes the deadline that drives us to complete the tasks before the guests arrive. The same dynamic takes place when customers place an order. As small business owners, we’re suddenly “on” and the product or service must go out the door in time to meet the clients’ needs.
There’s nothing quite like busy-ness to deliver us from the clutches of isolation.
You are welcome to publish this article providing you attach this statement with the link back to the RiskBuster website:
“Dan Boudreau is President and CEO of Macrolink Action Plans Inc. and the RiskBuster Business Plan Oasis at http://www.riskbuster.com Writing your own business plan can be easy, fast and fun! Instantly download a free copy of Dan’s popular fast-track business plan template, The Shell, when you subscribe to the RiskBuster Business Plan Insider at http://www.riskbuster.com”
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