| Remember co-workers? Those annoying people who | | | | themselves, and will be more than happy to |
| you're forced to share an office with -- some of them | | | | sympathise with you and offer advice. |
| friends, but most of them insufferable. If you're anything | | | | There's only one thing to be careful of, though: don't let |
| like me, one of reasons for starting a home business | | | | chatting about everything and nothing on the web |
| was to get away from these people. And yet, when | | | | interrupt your work. Give yourself a certain amount of |
| you do work at home all day, every day, you might | | | | time each day to talk to your newfound 'colleagues', |
| find that you start to miss that kind of companionship, | | | | and don't go over it. You don't want to be sitting there |
| and feel more than a little lonely. | | | | pressing 'Refresh' on a long discussion when you |
| All Alone... | | | | should be getting some work done, do you? |
| Picture the scene. You get up for another day of | | | | Get to Know Your Clients. |
| work. Your husband or wife has already left, since | | | | Here's a good way to turn your loneliness into an |
| they have to get up earlier to commute to their job. | | | | advantage: make your clients your friends! The |
| Your children are at school. All the neighbours are at | | | | customers that will be the most loyal to you are the |
| work. Your house feels deserted, and your | | | | ones that trust you and know you, and going to meet |
| neighbourhood feels like a ghost town. | | | | with them sometimes as a friend can be rewarding on |
| It's all too easy to become enormously demotivated in | | | | both a personal and a business level. |
| this situation, and to begin to feel like your work is | | | | Associations, Groups and Societies. |
| pointless. Worse, when you get stuck or something | | | | If you look, you might be surprised at how many things |
| bad happens, you have no-one to turn to -- at work, | | | | there are out there that you could join. Perhaps your |
| you were all in it together, but now it's just you, out on | | | | area has a Homeworkers' Society, or an association |
| your own. | | | | for your industry that holds regular meetings? Go |
| Even if you don't feel like it's affecting you, the lack of | | | | along, and you could find some new friends, as well as |
| human interaction could be causing you quite a few | | | | some good business contacts. Two or three groups |
| problems. Ask yourself honestly if you've been more | | | | should be enough. |
| irritable than usual recently, found yourself lacking in | | | | Go to a Coffee Place Sometimes. |
| energy, or felt upset or sad without being able to figure | | | | You've seen those people who seem to be doing |
| out the reason why. If you have, then it could be | | | | work in Starbucks, right? Well, they've figured out |
| related to home-worker loneliness. | | | | something valuable -- being at home alone all day |
| The Power of the Web. | | | | sends you crazy, and it's nice to get away sometimes |
| Since you've presumably got a computer and Internet | | | | and have some coffee while you work. Over time, |
| access on your office computer, you might find it | | | | you'll even become a regular, and people there will |
| worthwhile to get on a search engine and find a few | | | | start getting to know you. |
| forums for your industry, especially ones dedicated to | | | | Use Your Breaks to Contact People. |
| people who run home businesses. You might think | | | | Most people have a list a mile long of friends and |
| what you do is too obscure, but it's a big web out | | | | family that they've been meaning to get in touch with |
| there. | | | | for ages, but never seem to have the chance. A great |
| Finding friends on web forums can be good for | | | | thing to do can be to make a big list of all these |
| replacing the lost interaction with co-workers. More | | | | people, and then phone or email one of them each |
| than that, it can offer you a good outlet for your | | | | week, in one of your breaks. Not only does this fight |
| frustrations and problems -- many of the people you're | | | | loneliness, but it's also a plain fun and nice thing to do. |
| talking to will have been through the same thing | | | | |