Tweet

Loneliness in Business

Written by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: Running a small business can be an incredibly lonely experience. Here's my top five tops to making your business less lonely.

Loneliness in Business

Running a small business can be an incredibly lonely experience. Let's face it, we're all quite sociable really and even if we don't need to be around people all of the time, too much of our own company isn't good for us. I don't know about you, but if I've spent a couple of days in the office on the trot, I'm usually climbing the walls. So, here's my top five tips to making your business less lonely:

1: Go out! Go and see a client, go to a networking event, go running - whatever it is, if you're feeling lonely, the worst thing you can do is stay in your office. It's only going to make you feel worse. Even if it's the last thing in the world that you feel like doing, I promise you that if you go out (preferably to somewhere where there are other people), you will feel much better!

2: Join a group. One of the reasons that the breakfast networking events are so popular is that people are part of a group and they don't feel so alone. Could you join a group too? There are plenty to choose from - type BNI, BRX, 4Networking, NRG into Google to find a group that might suit you. You can also type in "local networking events" and see what comes back. Joining a group will help you see that everyone feels lonely at some point, but there is a way of getting over that feeling.

3: Get a business mentor or coach. A business mentor or coach is someone who can help you with your business. You should be able to bounce ideas off them and they should help you to reach a solution, although they shouldn't run your business for you. And of course, they're someone to rely on if you're feeling lonely or struggling in your business. Business Link usually run low-cost mentoring schemes. Check them out to see if there is one in your area.

4: Find something that inspires you. When I find something that inspires me in my business, it's a great feeling - I find that I'm buzzing with idea and can't wait to get on and do something about them, which leaves no time for feeling lonely. Why not read an inspirational book, go and watch a professional speaker, download a podcast or watch a motivational video? Finding something that is motivational and inspirational can make you feel a whole lot better.

5: And finally, if all else fails...why not team up with other small business owners that you know and try to help each other? All of us feel lonely from time to time and I will guarantee that they'll be others feeling the same way. Speak to small business owners at networking events etc and see if you can meet for coffee. Better still, get a small group together and see if you can meet to help each other out. A word of warning on this one though - make sure it doesn't turn into a moaning match, which will make you feel worse. Make the focus on helping each other out.

Related Articles
  Combating Loneliness While Working From Home
  Are You and Your Partner Hurting Each Other?
  Do You Isolate?
  Healing Love and Approval Addiction
  Holding Your Heart Through Sadness and Heartbreak

Article Tags: business business, business mentor, climbing the walls, coach, couple of days, google, inspirationa, joining a group, lonely 1, lonely experience, networking event, networking events, nrg, small business



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
English teachers learn Japanese as Interns - Yasunori, what about the many students that leave N. America to teach English in Japan. They may want to learn Japanese (maybe Business Japanese is a bit different) and the Japanese Business Culture.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Induction – your first management job

Are You Listening?

Selling with Humor (and a Sorry Butt)

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.