Are You Working Alone?

Remember co-workers? Those annoying people whothemselves, and will be more than happy to
you're forced to share an office with -- some of themsympathise with you and offer advice.
friends, but most of them insufferable. If you're anythingThere's only one thing to be careful of, though: don't let
like me, one of reasons for starting a home businesschatting about everything and nothing on the web
was to get away from these people. And yet, wheninterrupt your work. Give yourself a certain amount of
you do work at home all day, every day, you mighttime 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 ofGet to Know Your Clients.
work. Your husband or wife has already left, sinceHere'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 atcustomers that will be the most loyal to you are the
work. Your house feels deserted, and yourones 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 inboth a personal and a business level.
this situation, and to begin to feel like your work isAssociations, Groups and Societies.
pointless. Worse, when you get stuck or somethingIf 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 onarea 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 ofalong, and you could find some new friends, as well as
human interaction could be causing you quite a fewsome good business contacts. Two or three groups
problems. Ask yourself honestly if you've been moreshould be enough.
irritable than usual recently, found yourself lacking inGo to a Coffee Place Sometimes.
energy, or felt upset or sad without being able to figureYou've seen those people who seem to be doing
out the reason why. If you have, then it could bework 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 Internetand have some coffee while you work. Over time,
access on your office computer, you might find ityou'll even become a regular, and people there will
worthwhile to get on a search engine and find a fewstart getting to know you.
forums for your industry, especially ones dedicated toUse Your Breaks to Contact People.
people who run home businesses. You might thinkMost people have a list a mile long of friends and
what you do is too obscure, but it's a big web outfamily 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 forthing to do can be to make a big list of all these
replacing the lost interaction with co-workers. Morepeople, and then phone or email one of them each
than that, it can offer you a good outlet for yourweek, in one of your breaks. Not only does this fight
frustrations and problems -- many of the people you'reloneliness, but it's also a plain fun and nice thing to do.
talking to will have been through the same thing